Troublemaker
by sacredairbga7
Summary: NejixSaku Meet Haruno Sakura, a typical junior high school prankster. When her prank got out of hand, the principal decides to assign Sakura a mentor. As Sakura was starting to behave herself, a new problem occur that made her more rebellious than before.
1. The Two Troublemakers

_Hello everybody. First off I like to say that I wrote this fanfic to make up for my other one that I have not updated since November 2005. I am currently having a HUGE writer block on DGYHP (Don't get your hopes up). So I don't expect to update anytime soon. In the meanwhile enjoy my newest fanfic. Let's see, this one will be my 4th__ fanfic. _

**--**

**Summary:** **Neji x Sakura **Meet Haruno Sakura, a typical junior high school prankster. When her prank got out of hand, the school principal decides to assign Sakura a mentor. Sakura thinks it's going to be hell but things might not be as bad as Sakura thought. AU and hopefully not too much OOC

**Genre: **Drama/Romance

A/N – Author's Note

_Italic - thoughts and/or emphasis on the word  
_

**Bold – emphasis on the word**

AU (Alternate Universe)

OOC (Out of Character)

OC (Original Character, meaning I made he or she up)

Other characters includes: Naruto, Tsunade, Fuji (OC), Kaede (Sakura's mom and OC), Iruka, Ino and others.

* * *

**Troublemaker**

**Chapter 1: The Two Troublemakers**

In the middle of the night two shadow figures are moving swiftly towards a junior high school building. One is a blond-haired boy and the other is a pink-haired girl, but you can hardly tell them apart by the way they are dressed; they're dressed as if they are thief because they are wearing black from head to toe. They have reached the main gate and one of them spoke.

"Sakura-chan, I'll stay here for a little while to make sure no one else is around. You go on ahead and I'll meet you in the classroom." said the blond one.

"Ok, but be careful. I don't want us to get caught right now. Not yet." said the pink-haired one.

"I understand."

With that, the pink-haired person started to run towards the school main door.

"Arrgg. The door is locked." She looked survey the surrounding area and then the girl brought out her walkie-talkie and called for the blond boy.

"Come in, ramen boy. This is babe-raider. Do you hear me?"

"I hear you loud and clear. What's up?"

"The door is locked. Time for plan B." she said over the communicator.

"Roger that."

She ran around to the other opposite side of the building. She ran until she saw a slightly open window. The girl looked around for something that is long enough to reach the window so that she can open the window a little wider for her next plan.

Then she disappeared into the gym closet and came out with a long pole, which she have no idea what's it use for. When she succeeded in opening the window wider, she took out a string of ropes and attached to the end of it a hook. Since the open window was only on the second floor, it didn't take much of Sakura strength to throw it and it landed inside the window.

Sakura waited for the blond boy a little longer, and then he finally showed up. One by one each of them climbed up the rope. When both of them finally made to the top; the girl heads toward the teacher desk and whisper to the boy.

"Ok, let's hurry and set it up."

After a few minutes had passed, both of them are finally finished with whatever they did.

"Alright, Operation: Put-jumping-snakes-in-the-teacher-drawer-and-when-she-jump-back-because-she-is-sursprise-then-chalk-dust-will-fall-from-above-and-she-will-be-cover-with-chalk is complete."

"Sakura-chan, next time could you make the name shorter?"

"Shut up and let's get out of here before someone fines us."

**The next morning**

Naruto and Sakura were already in their seats when the bell rang. Then the rest of the students came in as well. The last person to come in was their teacher, Sakamoto-sensei.

Sakamoto-sensei was wearing a cream skirt which goes to her knees, and she wore a matching blouse and a pair of high heels shoes. She has long brown hair that reach to her back. Her face expression seems bored as usual; it was as if she didn't want to be there.

The first semester of school has ended and the first day of the second semester was today. Naruto and Sakura weren't on Sakamoto-sensei favorite list and either was she on theirs. That's why they came up with a little prank. From what Naruto and Sakura saw from the first semester, she is a very hygienic person, thus she will not like what's going to come at her.

"Good morning class, I hope you all have a good winter break."

Then Sakamoto-sensei took attendance and spoke again.

"Now turn to page 40 in your textbook."

Sakamoto-sensei then processed to write something on the board. Seeing that she didn't open her drawer yet, made Sakura very impatient. But she decided to wait a little longer.

Then the time has come, the teacher ran out of chalk and was reaching to her drawer and then suddenly a jumping snake came out of it and it freaked her out so much that she took a few steps backward.

"_That's it, keeping going. Just like the way I planned it." _thought Sakura.

"Almost there. Just a little more." Sakura whispered to herself.

Sakamoto-sensei had stepped back too far and had triggered a string when she pulled it with her foot. Then the map on top of her fell open and a chalk full of dust fell on her. Her brown hair is covered in white chalk, which also covered some part of her face, and her blouse. As the sight they see before them the whole class was in a fit of laughter.

"AARGGG, WHO DID THIS!?" Sakamoto-sensei asked, but the teacher question seems to be more of a yelling than a question.

The class was too busy laughing to answer her question. She then took a look at the can that was in her drawer where the jumping snake came from, and something caught her attention.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH. THAT WAS SO FUNNY! HER FACE WAS PRICELESS!" Said the hysterically laughing pink-haired girl.

"YEAH, I SHOULD HAVE BROUGHT MY CAMERA TODAY!" said Naruto while laughing uncontrollably.

Both were laughing the loudest and the hardest in the class. They were even on the floor rolling and holding their stomach. But suddenly a voice came out so loud and it's full of angry.

"U-ZU-MA-KI! YOU DID THIS!" yelled the teacher.

Then suddenly everyone stopped their laughing and looked at Naruto who was still on the floor with Sakura. The two stood up and look toward their now extremely angry teacher.

"EH! I DID WHAT?" said Naruto; acting innocent as possible.

"DON'T PLAY DUMB WITH ME! YOU DID ALL OF THIS!" yelled the teacher.

"EHHHH? You have no proof that I did it." Naruto pouted.

"Then how do you explain the label on the bottom of this can?"

Naruto walked toward the teacher and took a look at the can. Sakura follows him afterward.

The label imprinted **Property of Uzumaki Naruto.**

"Stupid Naruto, only you would be stupid enough to use a can with your name on it on last night mission!" yelled Sakura.

"Ohhh and how did you know this Haruno_-san_? Were you part of it too?" the teacher asked. "_I should have known it was her too."_ thought the teacher.

"I-I……ummm…uh…" Sakura stuttered.

"Both of you go to the principal office right NOW!" yelled the teacher.

"Yes ma'am." said the two while lowering their heads and walked out the door.

They walk silently towards the office until Naruto started to laugh quietly to himself.

"What's so funny?" asked Sakura.

"Didn't you see Sakamoto face? It was priceless."

She giggled "Yeah, it sure was."

Both were still laughing quietly when they enter the principal office. The principal wasn't there so they just took a seat near the door.

"HAHAHA if only you could see your face back in the classroom Sakura-chan. You had an even funnier face than Sakamoto-sensei when she caught you."

"Yeah, I was surprise. But mainly it was your fault because you used a can that has your name on it."

"Sorry about that Sakura-chan. That's a my bad." Naruto was still laughing. "But I didn't expect for you to blurt out that you were part of the prank too."

"Hehe, yeah me either." She started to lower her laughing voice and it was replaced by a nervous giggle.

"I mean I thought that you will be smarter than that. You gave yourself up so easily. And here I thought I was going to take all the blame." Naruto laughed.

"I get your point...now."

"HAHAHA…" he still laughing.

"You know it's not that funny anymo-" Sakura was cut off and vein appear on her forehead.

"Enough already, Naru-"

"HAHAHA…"

"Enough…"

"HAHAHA…"

"ARRGG! NARUTO NO BAKA!" she stand up and was about to launch a punch at his face. Naruto had stopped laughing and started to scoot back little. But then suddenly the door open and a woman with blond-haired appeared.

"SAKURA!"

Sakura stopped right in her track and turned around slowly.

"T-Tsu-Tsunade-sama…" she said and giving off a nervous laugh, and lowering her fist at Naruto, and her other hand was use to rubbed the back of her head.

Tsunade just sighed and closed the door before processing to walk toward her desk and took a seat. "_Sakura, what am I suppose to do with you?" _She thought as she sat down.

"Sakura, Naruto what are you in for now?" stressing the word 'now'.

15 minutes later

The two troublemakers came out.

"Damn that old woman, who does she thinks she is giving me two weeks detention."

"Well, she **is** the principal Sakura-chan. And I think she can still hear you."

"I don't care. I-umpf" she stopped when she felt something or more like someone was behind her. Right at that moment she felt an enormous aura that can engulf her anytime.

She turned around slowly and her eyes widen in shock when her sea-green eyes meet silvery eyes.

"H-Hyu-Hyuuga-senpai…" she was at a lost of words. All she could do was to stared at the person behind her. For some unknown reason, she felt somewhat frightened when she look into his eyes. Those eyes had the most hardest to read expression ever; it was as if they held no emotion at all.

There was total silence between all of them. Even Naruto didn't make a sound. All he did was stand as still as he can, and hoping that the staring will stop soon.

"Ah, Hyuuga Neji, you're just in time. Come in." said Tsunade; breaking the mental dual of the two students.

"Yes, ma'am." he said while look toward the principal, but then shifted his eyes back to Sakura again.

"Your foot." he said abruptly.

"Huh?" she said in confusion while looking at her foot and traced where is was at. It turns out that her left foot was on top of his left foot.

"I-I'm so sorry, Hyuuga-senpai!" she shrieked out.

"Aa…" he said before walking off to the principal office.

* * *

A/N: I hope that the NejiSaku fans who liked DGYHU would like this fanfic too.

**Next Chapter: Loneliness **

_sacredairbga7_

Bottom of Form


	2. Loneliness

**Summary:** **Neji x Sakura **Meet Haruno Sakura, a typical junior high school prankster. When her prank got out of hand, the school principal decides to assign Sakura a mentor. Sakura thinks it's going to be hell but things might not be as bad as Sakura thought. AU and hopefully not too much OOC

**Genre: **Drama/Romance

A/N – Author's Note

_Italic - thoughts and/or emphasis on the word_

**Bold – emphasis on the word**

_--_

Note: Sakura mom's name in this fanfic is Kaede. Kaede is currently dating a guy. His first name is Satoshi, last name is Fuji. Kaede called him by Satoshi, and Sakura called him by Fuji-san.

* * *

**Troublemaker**

**Chapter 2: Loneliness**

Sakura said her good-bye to Naruto and walked towards her house. Naruto house was on the opposite direction of Sakura. Naruto lived with Iruka-sensei because his parent died when he was really young. He said he was too young to even remember their faces.

It's a good thing that Iruka-sensei took him in ever since Kindergarten. Naruto told her everything about his life and how he lived in the Orphanage to the day when he got adopted. Even though they had known each other since freshman year, she felt as though she knows him all her life.

She can somewhat understands how he feels since she, herself don't have a father. Her father died when she was 12. She did not take the news very well. She felt great pain in her heart when he died, and so she thought it must be an even greater pain to not have both parent.

At least she still has her mother, whom she could still call as a family. Although sometimes she thinks that not having any memory of her father would be a better off.

Maybe her life now would be much better and she would willingly accept more _things_ in her life if she doesn't have the memory of her father. But as it turns out that she does have the memory of her dad and nothing can change that fact.

Sakura was holding a yellow piece of paper on her left hand, and her backpack and books on her right hand. She has reached the house, and that place gave off a lonely aura, as _usual_. She reluctantly took out her keys and opened the door.

"I'm home." she said as she looked around the house. There was no sign of people in the house and it was so silence that her voice had echo throughout the house. And that's perfectly fine with her. Knowing that no one is home, she still called out for her mom just to make sure.

"Mom, I'm home. Are you there…Mom?" she said as she peak in her mom bedroom. And as she expected, her mom was not here nor would she be anywhere else.

"_Honestly, why do I even bother looking?" _

She made her way to the kitchen to look for something to eat. The first thing she did when she got there was to look in the refrigerator. But then she stopped in front of it because something has caught her attention. "_A note. Must be from mom."_

The note read: _Dear Sakura,_

_I know you must be disappointed for I am not there. It turns out that Satoshi ha__s surprise me with tickets to go to see an orchestra concert in Tokyo. He told me that the concert is tonight and so we have to hurry and leave right away. I'm sorry I didn't get to prepare dinner for you dear. I left in such a rush that I don't have time. Well at least now you know where I am so you won't be worry. I'm also going to visit Satoshi's family in Tokyo, so I will be back in 3 weeks. Take care._

_PS. I hope you will please_ _try to behave yourself while I'm away._

_With love, Mom _

"Great, how am I supposed to get that stupid paper sign now?" she said with a bored face. This comes to no surprise to her anymore. "_That Fuji-bastard always pulls stunts like this whenever he can. Honestly how much 'fun' does an adult need?_"

Well worrying about her mom won't help her get her dinner ready. But before that, she took a look of what to eat. She pulled her pack back off her shoulder and unzipped the zip.

"_Let's see I have Math homework, Chemistry homework, and I have to write a report about Shakespeare. And all of it is due tomor…row."_

She took a seat and look over her homework. Then she looked at the clock. It's now 4:13 pm.

"_Oh what the hell with it. I don't give a damn."_

She then process to open the refrigerator and looked inside. There's only a few selection of food in there. "_The hell with dinner too. I'll just eat instant ramen."_

Sakura went to the living room and turned on the TV. She flipped through the channels; wanting to find something interesting to watch. She stayed like that for about an hour and had fallen asleep on the sofa.

When she woke up, it was 7 o'clock. She reluctantly got up and made her way to the bathroom to take a shower. On her way there, the phone rang and she picked it up not knowing who was on it and she doesn't want to guess.

"Hello…" she said in a boring and tiring tone.

"_Sakura-chan!! It's me Naruto."_

"What do you want?" she said while yawning.

"_Well I wanted to call you to see if everything is alright. So... is everything alright?"_

"If you are implying about my mom; she's in France right now." she said with a tedious tone.

"_Ohh, I see…" he just hit her weak spot and he knows it._

"Is there anything else you want to know?"

"_No, that's all. Have a good night Sakura-chan."_

"Aa, you too."

She hung up the phone and went to take a shower.

Afterward, she made an instant ramen and hopped on the sofa and watch TV while eating ramen.

It was 8:14 pm. There was nothing to watch so she turned off the TV. She just sat there to finish her ramen. When her ramen is done, she placed it on the desk besides her.

For some reason, she felt especially cold right that moment and therefore she brought her knee closer to her body for warmth. She stayed like that for about 30 minutes. The whole house was quiet within that time. Some people would find that the silence is unbearable, but to Sakura, it was just the thing she needs right now.

Just the thing she needed right…there…and…now. Peace and quiet.

Seconds had passed…and seconds had turned to minutes.

Minutes turned to more minutes. Until…

There was a faint and soft noises arise from the living room. The noise became louder and louder by each passing seconds. And pretty soon, the sobbing noise was echo throughout the whole house.

Right there and now, there seem to be nothing in this world that can make the sobbing stop

unless…

Ring

Ring

Ring

……………………

Sakura made no motion to pick up the phone this time. She would let the person who was calling to leave a message.

Beeeeeeeeeeee…………………

"_Sakura-chan, it's me……… Naruto."_

Sakura head suddenly jolt up but she only used half of her ear sense to listen.

"_Now I know you're there. So pick up the phone already."_

Still, Sakura made no motion to move.'

"_I know that you can hear me. So I'm just gonna say what I call for."_

"…"

"_I know that you must be crying right now. You can't fool me. Now pick up the phone so we can talk!" _he shouted.

"…"

"_Fine then! If you don't want to talk about it then have it your way. By-"_

"Wait, Naruto!"

"_..."_

"…"

"_So, you finally picked up?"_

"Yeah…"

"_Want to talk about it?"_

"Not really…"

"_I understand."_

There was silence among them two again. The clock was ticking and yet no one spoke. It is as if the silence says it all.

"Naruto…"

"_Yeah?"_

"Thank you."

"_No problem."_

"…"

"_..."_

"Good night, Naruto."

"_Good night, Sakura-chan."_

With those last words to the boy; she hung up.

* * *

**Next Chapter: The Valentine Prank**

**Review if you want, but no flame.**

_sacredairbga7_


	3. The Valentine Prank

**Summary:** **Neji x Sakura **Meet Haruno Sakura, a typical junior high school prankster. When her prank got out of hand, the school principal decides to assign Sakura a mentor. Sakura thinks it's going to be a hell but things might not be as bad as Sakura thinks. AU and hopefully not too much OOC

**Genre: **Drama/Romance

A/N – Author's Note

_Italic - __thoughts and/or emphasis on the word_

**Bold – emphasis on the word**

* * *

**Troublemaker**

**Chapter 3: The Valentine Prank**

Sakura woke up the next morning on her bed. She rushed to the bathroom and took a good looked herself in the mirror. Her eyes has a light black ring at the bottom for the lack of sleep and it is a little pinkish too, but it's barely even noticeable if you don't look too close.

"_Good, my eyes aren't that puffy anymore."_

Then Sakura quickly got ready for school. After 30 minutes in her house, she finally came out and dressed properly for school. The walk to school isn't far away, but Sakura just hated to walk near the school because cars always drove by and she felt like as if they are looking at her. She hate being watched or looked at by the drivers. Of course when you are walking so slowly to the other side of the sidewalk, people bound to notice you. As the pink-haired girl reached the other end of the cross walk, a cheerful voice called out to her.

"Good morning, Sakura-chan!" Naruto chirped.

"Morning, Naruto." said Sakura while yawning. Since Naruto lived with Iruka-sensei, he can drive Naruto to school because Iruka was a teacher at their school, but instead Naruto chose to walk to school with Sakura.

Sakura never question why Naruto would take the hard way to school, and so she left that thought out. They were almost at the gate of their school until they walked by a poster and something caught Naruto attention.

Naruto caught a glimpse of it since he can't stop because he was walking beside Sakura. The poster said something about a Valentine night party. _"Oh yeah, our school always has a party on the night of Valentine. This year the day is on Sunday. And it's for couples……only. I wonder… should I ask Sakura-chan?"_

"A-Ano, Sakura-chan…" Naruto started to ask but then the bell rang.

"Ohh, shoot! I can't be late for class again. Bye Naruto!" Sakura bid farewell to Naruto and ran off.

"…uh…bye Sakura-chan…" he muttered to himself. It took Naruto a whole minute to realize he's going to be late too.

"AH! I'm going to be late as well!" and then he ran off to class.

--

The first bell already rang and that's means that it's a five minute warning until you are late. Sakura ran through the hallway and into the classroom. Sakura arrived just before the second bell rang, and she was panting but relieved as the same time.

"Miss Haruno, please take your seat as I will begin class soon." said the teacher as he walked into the class. Sakura didn't say anything and did as she was told.

24 minutes later

"What did you mean you don't have your report?!" asked the English teacher.

"Well, it's like the words mean; I don't have the report." answered Sakura plainly.

"You had a whole week to do it, and now you say you don't have it! Haruno Sakura, do you want to fail my class?"

Sakura murmured a "no", which no one can hear her. She can't fail English class because it is required to graduate from junior high school.

"What was that?" he asked.

"I said NO sir." Sakura acted like a soldier and saluted to her teacher.

"Then get your act into gear and do the report! I'll expect it by tomorrow."

Then the bell rang.

Sakura walked out of English class and heads toward her next class. Today is like any other day; she goes to class and later she get scold because she doesn't do her homework. The last class of the day was with Naruto, so it won't be as bored as the rest.

As if the time has gone by very slowly for Sakura because she waited forever for the last damn bell to ring, so she could go home. Ohhh…. but wait…. she has detention now. F??

-sigh- "Great, now I have to go to detention." Said the bored Sakura.

"Look on the bright side, Sakura-chan. At least your mom isn't here to know you got two weeks detention." Said Naruto.

"I don't think she even cares."

"Of course she cares! All parents love their children."

"Since when did you become an expert on parenting? Anyways, my mom cares more about the bastard more than me."

"You mean Fuji-san?"

"Don't call him **that** in front of me!"

"B-but...but you call him Fuji-san too!"

"You really do have a bad memory! I told you that I only call him that in front of him and mom."

"Ohh I see, so in other words, you are just faking in front of him."

"Of course! And who does he thinks he is, calling me Sakura so gracefully?!"

"Wow, whenever I'm with you; you barely talk about him in front of me. So why do you hate him so much?"

"Because…"

"Because?"

Then Sakura just walked away.

"_She probably doesn't have a good enough reason." _Naruto laughed at the thought.

--

**Detention room**

Sakura opened the door and saw the principal and an unexpected person, Hyuuga Neji, was there too. He was sitting next to Tsunade with his arms crossed over his chest and his eyes closed. Sakura thought about why Neji would be here. Neji was one of the top students at the school, so there's no way he could get detention and that couldn't be right. So then she thought that maybe he came here because of what happened yesterday, but then again was he known for holding grudges?

Sakura just shrugged it off because this time she didn't do anything to him, so why would she be worry. Sakura and Naruto walked to the desk where Tsunade is and signed in. Then they gave Tsunade a yellow piece of paper and she took it, but then looked at Sakura with a questionable face.

"Sakura, why isn't your paper sign?" she asked.

"Because my mom was not home last night."

"Oh I see, so have her sign it when she's home."

"She won't be home until three more weeks."

"Oh I see…" those are the only thing Tsunade can think of to say at that moment.

"_She's going to be alone for the next 3 weeks? I see, and I bet this isn't the first time that this happens either." _

Tsunade took a glance at Neji. _"Neji, I hope you're taking notes on this conversation. It might come in handy later on…"_

Then, Tsunade told Sakura and Naruto to take a seat somewhere until detention is over.

Things went pretty much the same for the next two weeks, except Neji wasn't always there in detention room. And then the last day of Sakura and Naruto detention has finally came.

"Well, one more week until my mom comes home. Oh joy." Sakura said sarcastically.

"Yeah, and two more week until Valentine Day." Naruto murmured

"Huh, did you say something Naruto?"

"Nothing."

--

**One week later**

When Sakura open the door to her house, she saw her mom was sitting on the sofa with…Fuji-_san._ Kaede tilted her head a bit upward to see who was home.

"Welcome home honey." Kaede said cheerfully.

"I should be the one who say that line, mom. Welcome home." Sakura said plainly after she took off her shoes and walked towards her room. The last thing she wanted is to look at Fuji.

"Hi, Sakura-san." He said.

"Hi, Fuji-san." She said while still walking passed the sofa.

"Did anything happen when I was away?" Kaede asked, while checking the mails that she missed because she was away.

"Ohh, nothing special happened. Just the usual. I sleep, I go to school, and I eat, and then go to sleep again."

"I see."

"Ohh, and I got 2 weeks detention while you were away." Sakura said bluntly.

It took Kaede a few good second to register Sakura words, and then…

"WHAT!!" she yelled as she stood up from the sofa.

"I said I had 2 weeks detention before you were home." Sakura said again.

"W-what! I want an explanation now, Sakura! Come here!"

"I can't. I have homework." Sakura said before closing her bedroom door.

"Why that little…"

"Now, now, calm down Kaede. I'm sure there's a good reason behind all of this. She probably got blame for something she didn't do." Fuji said trying to calm Kaede down.

"I highly doubt that. Knowing that child, she might have done it on purpose."

"Now, don't say that." Fuji said.

Sakura bedroom was not far from the living room, and so she could hear her mom conversation with Fuji. She felt disgusted on how Fuji, stuck up for her when she didn't need him to. As for her mom; Sakura can tell she is beginning to lose faith in her own daughter.

Sakura lay on her bed and her thoughts began to drift back to the good old times where her mom is her greatest encouragement. Sakura closed her eyes and thought about it. After a few minutes she felt dowsing and fell asleep instead of doing her homework.

Her thought before she fell asleep was…..

_Two years ago_

_Sakura came home and open the door so strongly that it made a loud sound when it crash into the wall._

"_Sakura, how many times have I told you to not slam the door like that?" yelled Kaede_

"_Sorry mom, but I have to show you something."_

"_What is it?"_

"_I got a 94 on my Algebra test!"_

"_That's my girl. I knew you can do."_

"_Yeah, I study all night for it."_

"_Keep up the great work, Sakura."_

"_I will."_

_Later on that same year_

"_Sakura, time for dinner."_

"_I can't eat yet, I have to study for a test."_

"_Come on, studying is one thing, but you have to eat too." said Kaede._

"_What's the test about?" asked Kaede._

"_It's English. It's my worst subject of all."_

"_Here let me help you if you are struggling so hard."_

"_Thanks mom, you're the greatest." Sakura hugged her mom before going back to studying._

_The next morning_

"_Sakura get up! You're going to be late for school." Sakura then look at her clock._

"_AHHHHHHHHHHHHH. I'M LATE. I'M LATE. I'M LATE. I'M LATE. I'M LATE………."_

"_Hurry up. I'll drive you to school."_

"_Ok!" Sakura ran to the bathroom and close the door._

_Later that same day_

_Sakura come home with a sad face, which is surprise her mom because Sakura always have a happy face on her face, unless something really bad happened._

"_Sakura, what's wrong dear?"_

"_I'm sorry mom." Sakura began to cry._

"_Sorry for what?"_

"_I-I-I-I…I got ….detention today …for being …late today." Sakura said between her sobs._

"_Aw, that's ok dear. I know you didn't do it on purpose."_

"_B-but, this was my first time having detention! It would look bad on my permanent records, and I can't go to a good college and I can't have a good job and I can't--I can't-" Sakura began to have hiccups._

"_Shhh…nonsense, there are plenty of college out there who would love to have you to attend their school. And besides it's just one detention. They won't hold that against you. They can't and they won't judge you by only that."_

"…" _Sakura remain silent to listen to her mother._

"_If it makes you feel any better I'll go talk to your principal and explain everything to her."_

"_Really? Thanks mom, I really appreciate it."_

"_Anything for my little girl."_

_Then Kaede gave Sakura a big, long hug, and kept saying everything will be fine._

Back to the present day and time

Sakura woke up and looked at the clock and it was 7:35 PM. Sakura motioned to her door to take a peak at what her mom is doing and making sure Fuji has gone home already. She walked out to the living room and saw that nobody was there. Sakura didn't want to waste any thought about where her mom could be, and so she returned to her room.

She walked back to her bed and unzipped her backpack to look for her homework. Then she pulled out a book that has the word "English Book 2". She then remembered that her teacher said that they were supposed to read from pages 100-115, and answer the questions at the end.

"_English homework eh?"_ she thought.

Sakura then throw the book to the other side of her bed and lay down again. She then again thought in her head_. "I __**hate**__ English homework."_ She curled up in a small ball and covered herself up with her blanket. Her mind kept recalling the time where she got her first detention for being late because she stayed up all night to study for an English test. But that's not why she is recollecting it.

It's because back then her mom actually cares for her grades and she was the greatest encouragement to Sakura. Her mom helped her with her hardest homework and would always praise her if she did a good job or just support her if she did a bad job. Sakura then began to think why can't her mom still be like that? Why can't she (her mom) understand how she feels?

Why does she always pay more attention to Fuji than her? Why does she keep going on trips with Fuji and leave her alone at home? Why! Why! Why! Why! WHY!!

Sakura keep asking herself those questions over and over again. But she can't find the reasons as to why those things happened to her. So then Sakura did something that she always did whenever she is upset or sad or depress or any of those combinations; and that is to cry.

Sakura face was on her pillow and hugged it tightly and just cries and cries and cries until she is too tired to cry anymore. She would have to worry about her eyes being puffy tomorrow morning, but for now she'll just cry to her heart content or in this case cry until she falls asleep.

--

**Fours days later**

Everyone is now at lunch, and Sakura and Naruto were in the cafeteria, and then suddenly the speaker came on. It was the principal, Tsunade.

Over the speaker: _Attention everyone, the Valentine party will be held on Sunday at 5-11 PM, I hope to see you at the party that night and have fun._

"_Maybe I should ask Sakura if she want to go with me to the party tonight."_ Naruto thought

Upon hearing this, Sakura starting to remember that her mom and Fuji is going to out to eat that night. Just thinking about it makes her furious. She can't stand Valentine Day; it has got to be the worse holiday EVER! Just looking at those lovey dovey couples reminded Sakura of her mom and her _date_, which means she is going to be alone again. That makes Sakura feel unwanted and therefore will she will be crying, and she hated to cry because it made her eyes all puffy and made her seem weak. And if she seem weak, then that would make her angry, and you don't like it when she's angry. Sakura will play pranks on others, and the worst her anger is, the worst of the pranks she will do.

Naruto was seating next to Sakura, and saw that she was deep in thought, but then decided to ask her right now because no one else is around.

"Umm…Sakura-chan…" said Naruto, but it didn't get to her, and so he touched her shoulder and said her name again.

"Sakura-chan?"

"Huh, what is it?" Sakura finally broke out of her train of thoughts.

"I…umm…I …" but then Naruto was cutted off by Ino, who came out of no where.

"So, Sakura are you going to the Valentine party?" Ino said happily.

But Sakura wasn't so cheery upon hearing that. She was enraged to the point of no return. Just hearing the word Valentine triggered her anger.

"THERE'S NO WAY IN HELL THAT I'M GOING!! WHY THE HELL WOULD I GO TO THAT STUPID PARTY!! IT'S A WASTE OF TIME AND I HATE TO SEE LOVEY DOVEY COUPLES HUGGING AND BEING ALL HAPPY WITH EACH OTHER!! I WOULD NEVER GO TO SUCH A PLACE IN A MILLION YEARS!!" when Sakura finished, she was panting because she just up too much energy on yelling. Sakura was not only yelling at Ino, but at everyone on the room as well.

Sakura outraged got everyone attention in the cafeteria and they all stared at her.

Naruto and Ino were shocked of their friend reaction. There was a long silence in the cafeteria and no one spoke up for about three minutes. Sakura finally snapped back to reality and looked at her friends, who were still in shock with widened eyes. She was still very angry, but more towards her mom then Ino.

"S-Saku-" Ino began to speak, but then Sakura just ran out of the cafeteria without saying good-bye. Ino was almost in tears when she saw Sakura act so cold towards her. Naruto still didn't know what to do, but he knows not to make that same mistake as Ino.

"_It might be a better idea if I don't ask her out."_ Naruto thought.

--

**Two days later. It's Valentine's Day, February 14**

Sakura just took her shower and now she is watching TV. As she expected Kaede and Fuji are out on some kind of romantic dinner. It was 6:30 PM when they left, and now it's 7:43 PM; time for dinner.

If Sakura didn't know any better she would think she is becoming more and more like Naruto; she practically eat ramen everyday just like him! The house is quiet again, but this time Sakura don't feel like crying at all. She felt like punching and crashing something with all her might because everybody is having a good time while she is stuck at home doing anything.

But then again sulking about it won't help her get over her anger, and surely staying at home doesn't help either. So then Sakura decided to out for a walk, but not before calling Naruto to ask if he want to come with her.

Ring

Ring

Ring

Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep…….

"_I guess the phone line is busy. Ohh well, I'll just go by myself." _She thought.

Sakura walked out of the house with a blue coat with a hood on. She'll just let her feet guide her to whatever place it goes to. She looked at her watched and saw it is 8:13 PM. Her mind started to get bored and stopped to sit at a bench. Then she finally noticed that she was in the park. But this park seems odd; there are only trees around and not a single playground. She thought for a minute and then it hit her. _"This is the park is the most popular place for couples to go on dates. With all the trees around here, you can't barely see them if they sat somewhere behind a tree."_

It's true that the park is very famous for its many trees and it's the ideal place for couples who wanted to have some private moments together.

And then a thought hit Sakura again. Maybe her mom and Fuji might be here. If they are, then Sakura is going to have a little check-up on them. Just to see if they shouldn't be doing anything they know they shouldn't. Sakura grinned at her brilliant plan to spy at her mom.

Then, Sakura ran off to find her mom.

Sakura searched for a whole fifteen minutes but there was no sign of her mom or Fuji. Sakura was about to give up until she heard a soft sound coming from behind the bushes, and then Sakura took a peak of what is was and she hoped that it was her mom. But Sakura was disappointed at what she saw just two complete strangers making out on the bench.

Sakura was surprise when she saw that, so then she concealed herself behind the bushes so they wouldn't notice her. Even though Sakura didn't mean to do it on purpose, but they might take it the wrong way. Sakura stayed there and didn't move for a whole good three minutes, but then the moaning won't stop, and she was about to gag. So then Sakura thought of a good way for them to stop and for her to have some fun in the process.

Sakura putted her hood over her head, and started to make ghostly sound. She tried to sound loud enough for them to hear her, and when she got their attention she tried to sound as scary as possible. Sakura could hear them whimpering and the girl spoke up.

"H-Honey, did you hear that? It sounded like a g-g-g-g-host" she said.

"D-D-Don't b-be silly. T-There's no such thing as g-g-g-g-" he muttered.

"Ghost!" the girl yelled out as Sakura popped her head out and made them run away like little children. Sakura tried to hold her laughter until they are out of sight, and when they were, Sakura dropped down on the ground, holding her stomach because she was laughing so hard.

"HAHAHAHAHAHA! I CAN'T…HAHA... BELIEVE…HAHA…. THEY…HAHA... FELL…HAHA... FOR...HAHA…THAT! HAHAHAHAHAHA" Sakura laughed some more. It took Sakura a whole 5 minutes for her to calm down and control her laughter.

"_That was so much fun, I wonder how many more couples out there who are a scary cat as those two before? Ummm……spying on mom can wait, I'll let myself have some fun first." _she thought. So then Sakura skipped happily to find more victims...erm...she means couples out there who are smooching.

--

**Somewhere near the park**

Tsunade was walking by the park until she heard some screaming coming from it.

"_That's odd, this is Couples Park. Why is there screaming and yelling?" _she thought. Just then Tsunade saw some couples running out of the park, and so Tsunade decided to approach one of the couple.

"Umm excuse me, why are you running away? This is the Couples Park isn't it?" she asked them.

"It is!" one answered.

"But there's a ghost in there!" another one answered.

"A ghost?" asked Tsunade with a curious face.

"Yes! A ghost! And if you know what's best for you, you should not go in there."

"The park is haunted!" and with those last words, the two couple ran away.

"_A ghost? I don't believe it. I went on dates here before and I never heard of a ghost." _Tsunade thought, and so she decided to play detective and investigate. Tsunade began to walk towards the park, while some were running away from it.

--

**Back to Sakura little game**

"HAHAHAHA!! THEIR FACES WERE PRICELESS!! If I knew this is going to be so much fun, I would have been here a long time ago!!" Sakura shouted._ "Ok now, who's next?"_ she thought while putting on an evil grin.

Sakura once again began to search for more couples, but after a few minutes she couldn't find any. _"Where is everyone? Hehe, they're probably got scare and ran home. I. am. good." _Sakura praised herself in her mind. After a few more minutes of walking, Sakura heard a few foot steps coming her way, and from the sound of it, it was a lady because you could hear the high heels shoes making the sound whenever it touched the ground. Sakura went into hiding again and prepare to scare the wits out of the lady.

Sakura was hiding in the bushes below the lady and when she saw the lady feet stopped, Sakura popped her head out, but much to her surprise it was someone she knows and that someone was just as surprise as her.

"Sakura? What are you going hiding in the bushes?" asked Tsunade.

"_Oh crap, I've been caught and by the scariest woman in the world too. What should I do? Confess to her or run away as fast as I can?"_

"I'm waiting, Sakura. Why are you here at night and not at your house?!" Tsunade began to shout.

"Ummm…you see….I….umm…" Sakura found herself shuddering like an idiot would do when is caught doing something bad. Tsunade raised an eyebrow at Sakura behavior. And then it hit her, Sakura was…she was…

"Don't tell me, you were the one…." Tsunade couldn't finish her sentence because she didn't want to believe that Sakura would drop so low as to scare away couples in the Couples Park.

"_Uh oh, she figured it out. There's only one thing to do now. RUN AWAY!!"_

Sakura began to sprint the opposite direction of Tsunade. After Sakura ran for about two minutes she saw that Tsunade was closing in from behind her. _"Man! That woman sure can run fast! W-wait…what am I saying? This is no time to admire her when I'm trying to run away from her!! Stupid me! Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!" _Sakura began to pick up her pace and ran faster.

"STOP!! SAKURA!! YOU WON'T GET AWAY FROM ME!!" yelled Tsunade.

After about ten minutes of running, both of them began to slow down. Sakura thought she can get away now, but then she tripped over the root of a tree and feel down. Sakura was about to get up, but then she felt a pressure on her legs, and when she looked back she saw Tsunade was on her legs, preventing Sakura from escaping.

"T-Tsunade-sama, I-I can explain." Sakura said.

"TELL ME WHEN I GET YOU HOME TO YOUR MOTHER!!" Tsunade shouted.

So then Tsunade stood up, but held on to Sakura arm to prevent her from running away again. Tsunade walked Sakura home, but when they arrived there was no one home.

"Where's your mom?" asked Tsunade.

"She's out on some kind of romantic dinner." Sakura answered.

"Well then, when she gets home tell her to come to my office tomorrow morning."

"Why?"

"Isn't it obvious? We are going to discuss your punishment."

"Ohh…" was all Sakura could say, and then she closed the door when Tsunade walked out the door. Tomorrow is going to be hell for Sakura. Ohh, boy she's really in trouble this time.

--

**The next day**

Sakura was sitting outside of the principal office waiting for her mom to come out. Kaede has been in there for over ten minutes, and from the sound of it her mom is pretty mad. She moved closer to the door in order to listen to their conversation better. She heard….

"Sakura is a bright kid, it's just that she doesn't know the right path to take." said Tsunade.

"So, what do you suppose we do?" asked Kaede.

"I have an idea. But it require you to agree with me." said Tsunade.

Then Sakura could barely hear anything after that because it seems like they know she was listening and so they started to whispered. She waited for another five minutes until she heard Tsunade called her in. Sakura opened the door and stepped in.

"Yes, Tsunade-sama?"

"Your mom and I have come to a conclusion that you need someone to look after you; someone that can be a good role model to you, and keep you out of trouble." Tsunade explained.

"Okaaaayyyy….what's your point?" asked Sakura with a hit of curiosity in her voice.

"Her point is that we decided to assign **you** a mentor." Said Kaede.

"You WHAT?? You can't do that to me!" Sakura protested.

"We can and we will. I hope this will be a valuable experience for you." Tsunade said.

"B-But-but-but…" said Sakura.

"NO BUTS! We have made up our mind! You will go see your mentor this afternoon. Have I made myself clear?!" Tsunade ordered.

"…" Sakura was speechless.

"Have. I. Made. Myself. Clear?" asked Tsunade again, but this time with more rage and added more emphasis to each and every word.

"Yes, ma'ma." Sakura said in a low voice.

Kaede sighed and looked at her daughter with sorrow eyes. She took a deep breath before she spoke up again.

"Sakura, we just want you to behave yourself and don't get to anymore trouble. From what I heard earlier from Tsunade-san; this mentor sounds like a good person who can help you with all that you need. So please do it for me and for yourself, ok?" Kaede suggested

"Ok." Sakura agreed.

* * *

**A/N: -deep sigh- such a long chapter and there's no Neji/Saku at all. Sorry about that.**

**Well, I assume that everyone know who's the mentor going to be, right?**

For some reason I don't like this chapter very much, probably because there's not enough Neji AND Sakura. Well, how can I expect you to like this chapter when I don't? So review if you want.

_sacredairbga7_


	4. The Training Begins

**Summary:** **Neji x Sakura **Meet Haruno Sakura, a typical junior high school prankster. When her prank got out of hand, the school principal decides to assign Sakura a mentor. Sakura thinks it's going to be a hell but things might not be as bad as Sakura thinks. AU and hopefully not too much OOC

**Genre: **Drama/Romance

A/N – Author's Note

_Italic - __thoughts and/or emphasis on the word_

**Bold – emphasis on the word**

* * *

**Troublemaker**

**Chapter 4: The Training Begins**

Sakura walked down the street toward her mentor house. _"I wonder what she is like. All the houses here are so big. She must be rich."_ Sakura followed the instruction on a piece of paper that Tsunade gave her this morning, and it led her to a dojo. She stood there staring at the huge front door with awe, but also in confusion. _"This place is HUGE, but wait…this can't be right. This place is a dojo, why would she _(A/N: Sakura thinks her mentor is a girl) _live in a dojo, unless she works here or something."_

Sakura continued to stare at the dojo until she realized that she could go check if this place is the right place or not. Sakura walked closer to the door and next to it was the mailbox. She saw the sign that said **"Hyuuga"** on the mailbox. Then she immediately realized that this dojo belonged to the Hyuuga family, which meant Hyuuga Neji lived here.

Sakura backed away from the dojo for about ten feet, and then continued to stare at it. _"Why would Tsunade-sama give me the direction to Hyuuga-senpai house? Unless she wants me to…unless Hyuuga-senpai is really my-" _Sakura could not even finish her sentence in her mind. It took Sakura a whole five minutes to absorb in the details, and then she decided to walk to the front door and ring the bell. Unfortunately, she didn't have the guts to do it, and so she just stood there like a statue. That was, until a voice came out that brought Sakura back to reality.

"What are you doing?" asked Neji.

Sakura was startled by Neji and she couldn't even answer his question correctly. "H-Hyuuga-s-senpei…I…uh…I…"

"Answer my question, Haruno." He said a little louder.

Sakura took a deep breath before answering in a very fast speed. "Tsunade-sama told me to come here, and when I did came I was surprise that it led me to this dojo and I took a few minutes to think whether I should ring the door bell or not or wait for someone to come out, but then you showed up startling me and I couldn't answer your question properly and I-" Sakura was cut off by Neji.

"Ok, that's enough. I understand the rest."

"Umm, Hyuuga-senpai…what do I do now?"

"You can run around the park once to get to know the place."

"Why?"

"You will start your training tomorrow, and you will have to run around the park everyday and then learn all the basics of self-defense."

"Why should I?"

"If you can put so much effort in making those pranks, so why don't you put those skills to good use by learning self-defense. After all, you are a girl. And it might come in handy later on."

"Oh." She said barely above a whisper. Sakura couldn't protest against him. She did promise her mom and Tsunade that she would listen to her mentor. They thought that the mentor knew what is good for her; so if Neji wanted her to run and learn self-defense, then he must have his reasons. So with last thought, Sakura didn't waste anymore time and she started to run toward the park.

As Sakura was running around the park, she noticed that there was no one around. The place looked old, and perhaps abandoned. She stopped for a brief minute to catch her breath. Then she spotted a tree house on the far side of the park. The park wasn't very big and the ground space was smaller than the other parks. If Sakura had to guess the distant from where she was and the tree, then her estimate would be around 120 feet. (A/N: Is that a good length or is it too short? Well anyways, you get my point)

Sakura started to run again, but as she ran, she couldn't keep her eyes off the tree. There was something about that tree that really intrigued her. She kept her eyes on it until she couldn't see it anymore when she was too far away.

When Sakura reached the dojo again, she saw Neji was leaning against the door with his eyes closed, and arms folded. Without opening his eyes, he spoke up.

"What took you so long?" he said as if you knew she was there already, and she was.

"Sorry, I…uh…" she couldn't tell him that she was interested in the tree house at the park, so she stayed silent and hoped that his question would go away.

"Starting tomorrow, you are to finish running within fifteen minutes or else you will have to scrub the entire floor of the dojo." Neji stated and he stood up straight. This indicated that he was serious. But Sakura was shocked and started to glare at him.

"What! You are supposed to be my mentor, not like my prison guard."

"A job of a mentor is to improve and help ones learning ability. But in my case, I am to keep you out of trouble. And if that means that I have to keep you occupied by making you scrub the floor, then I will do it."

Sakura was silent. She couldn't think of what to say, so she just said her good bye to Neji and walked home after he told her to meet him tomorrow after school. He said that the training will start tomorrow.

--

Sakura came to Nej's dojo the next day after she said her good bye to Naruto. When she arrived, the door was slightly opened, and so she thought that Neji left the door opened for her. Sakura stepped inside the dojo and to her amazement, no one was there.

"Hyuuga-senpai?" Sakura called out, but there was no answer.

Sakura thought that Neji could be in the main hall, and so she started to walk off to the main hall. But there was a problem; she didn't know where the main hall was. So the more she walked around, the more she thought she was lost in her mentor's dojo.

Sakura was about to give up and return back to the front entrance, but then something caught her eyes and she halted and turned to the direction of a certain hallway. At the end of the hall way, she could see an opened door and inside looked pretty big. Sakura thought that it was the main hall, and so she rushed to go see it.

When she arrived at the room, she was once again disappointed because there was no one there. Sakura was exhausted from all the searching, and so she decided to take a seat and leaned on the wall. While Sakura was leaning on the wall, she felt something behind her, so she decided turned around to see what it is.

What Sakura saw was indeed a surprise, but what got her attention even more was the person in the photo. The girl has the same eyes as Neji. Her hair was short and it was blue, unlike Neji's hair, which is kind of brownish-black. Sakura pondered about that for a minute, until a voice spoke out and surprised the living day light out of her.

"Haruno, what are you doing here?" asked Neji.

Sakura regained her postured and answered her mentor. "You said that I was supposed to meet you here everyday after school at this time. But when I got here I didn't see you and so I came in and check. Then somehow I ended up here in this room."

"You should know better then to walked in uninvited. But now that you're here, let's get started." Neji said to Sakura, and then he started to walk away from the room.

Sakura looked at Neji, and something curious was stirring inside her and she just had to ask Neji what or rather who it was in the picture.

"Wait up, Hyuuga-senpai." Sakura walked faster to catch up with Neji. And when she was close right behind him, she spoke up.

"By the way, Hyuuga-senpai. Who was that girl in the picture that hung in the room?"

Neji thought it was a pointless question, but if he doesn't answer her, she might bug him about it for the rest of the day. So Neji decided to answer Sakura question.

"She's my cousin, Hinata."

"Oh…I see. No wonder she has the same eyes as you. How come I didn't see her at our school?"

"That's because she went to an all girls school." said Neji.

"I see. Is she nic-" Sakura was cut off when Neji suddenly halted.

"We're here." He said.

"Here? Here where?"

"The place where you will be doing your training."

"Ohh…" Sakura said. Then she took a look at the surrounding area. There were a couple of trees and a small pond. It looked like a perfect place for whatever she'd be doing.

"Let's start off by doing some stretching and then twenty-five push-ups."

"Okay." Even though Sakura obeyed his order, she thought twenty-five push-ups was a lot.

Sakura started to stretch her arms and then her legs. When she felt that she had done enough stretching, she got on the floor and started doing her push-ups.

"_One."_ Sakura was mentally keeping tracking of her number of push-ups. _"Two."_

While Sakura was doing her push-ups near the tree, Neji was sitting on a rock and his mind went back to the time where he agreed to be Haruno Sakura mentor.

Now why did he agree to be her mentor again? Let's go back four weeks ago.

_Flashback (In case no one remember; part of the flashback was from chapter one)_

"_Ah, Hyuuga Neji, you're just in time. Come in." said Tsunade; breaking the mental dual of the two students._

"_Yes, ma'am." he said while look toward the principal, but then shifted his eyes back to Sakura again._

"_Your foot." he said abruptly._

"_Huh?" she said in confusion while looking at her foot and traced where is was at. It turns out that her left foot was on top of his left foot._

"_I-I'm so sorry, Hyuuga-senpai!" she shrieked out._

"_Aa…" he said before walking off to the principal office._

_Naruto and Sakura watched as Neji went inside the office._

"_Aa, I see you met Sakura already, eh?" Tsunade asked._

"_You mean Haruno? Yes, I know her."_

"_I see that would make things easier."_

"_I don't get what you are trying to get at, Tsunade-sama."_

"_Have a seat, Neji." Tsunade said. Then Neji took a seat and waited patiently for Tsunade to continue._

"_I have received the notice from the Tono High School. They said they would love to have you attend their school."_

"_Thank you for telling me that." Neji said, and then he motion to stand up but then Tsunade spoke up again which made him sit back down._

"_Although, they are satisfied with your performance here; they felt that you don't have enough experience with people."_

"_What do you mean by that, ma'am?"_

"_You see, they told me that there is a __**catch**__ in order for you to fully get accept into their school." she said and putted an emphasis on the word catch.  
_

"_And what, may I ask, is the catch could be?" Neji asked, with a hint of annoyance._

"_Like I said before, they don't feel that you have interacted with people much, and therefore they ask me to help you be someone's tutor or mentor."_

_Neji stayed silent for a while after Tsunade gave him the information. He was thinking of a way out of this, but knowing the people from Tono they won't let him refuse their deal. Especially when they know how badly Neji wanted to get in their high school._

_Neji consider the idea for a minute, but he has to know who that person is going to be. "Who do you have in mind, Tsunade-sama?"_

_Tsunade gave Neji a smile before answering his question. "Haruno Sakura."_

_End of Flashback_

Sakura was doing push-ups on the floor until she felt tired and took a break. When she looked up, she saw Neji was looking at the clouds with an expressionless face. She then recalled that she had a really difficult English homework and she doesn't know how to do it.

"_Well, I guess this is as good of a time as any. He's not doing anything."_ Sakura thought.

"Um…Hyuuga-senpai…?" Sakura said. Upon hearing his name Neji snapped out of his train of thoughts and looked at Sakura.

"What is it?"

"As a mentor, you suppose to help me with school work too, right?" Sakura asked.

"Yeah."

"Well then, can you help me with my English homework? I don't understand it at all."

Neji gave out a sigh before he gave her a nod, which indicated a yes. Sakura got up from the floor and took out her homework from her backpack and handed it to Neji.

For the rest of the afternoon and until early evening, Neji tried his best to explain the stuff to Sakura. And thus, the first day of Sakura's training ended.

* * *

**A/N: I like to give a big friendly hug and thanks to my beta reader's narutofan4ever and Avini. They really help me with my grammar. Thanks again you guys. And while I'm at it, I like to thank you for all who had review for me. I really appreciate your support for this story and I hope that future chapters won't disappoint you.**

**Next Chapter: The Deal**

_sacredairbga7_


	5. The Deal

**Summary:** **Neji x Sakura **Meet Haruno Sakura, a typical junior high school prankster. When her prank got out of hand, the school principal decides to assign Sakura a mentor. Sakura thinks it's going to be a hell but things might not be as bad as Sakura thinks. AU and hopefully not too much OOC

**Genre: **Drama/Romance

A/N – Author's Note

_Italic - __thoughts and/or emphasis on the word_

**Bold – emphasis on the word**

* * *

**Troublemaker**

**Chapter 5: The Deal**

Four days later

Sakura went to Hyuuga's dojo like always. But when she approached the place, she heard loud, noises coming from the inside. There were noises that sounded like brick breaking, woods colliding, lots of boys yelling, and a bunch more noises that Sakura could not figure out. Sakura slowly opened the door and to her surprise the whole front yard was crowded with boys of all ages.

The brick breaking sounds that Sakura heard came from the bunch of boys that were breaking it with their hands and legs. Then Sakura directed her attention to the opposite side and saw a few swordsmen practicing with their wooden swords. There were a bunch more boys scattered everywhere, and doing some kind of training. None of them seemed to notice Sakura's presence. Either that or they chose to ignore her. Sakura was glad that she didn't catch any unwanted attention.

Sakura walked past them and headed toward a hallway that seemed to lead to the main hall. When Sakura got there, she saw more boys, but this time they were practicing some form of martial arts. She didn't want to disturb them, so she quickly and quietly left the room. Then she proceeded toward another hallway. _"Damn, where could Hyuuga-senpai be?" _Sakura questioned herself.

As Sakura walked down the quiet hallway, she suddenly heard a voice called out "Shoot". Sakura stopped to listen to the voice better and where did it came from. "Shoot!" There it was again, and this time Sakura recognized the voice. That irritating and commanding voice could only belong to one person only: Hyuuga Neji.

"_That sounded like Hyuuga-senpai."_ Sakura then turned in the direction of the voice was coming from. Sakura quickened her pace toward where she heard it. When she got there, she found herself in a field with gates all around it. There were a bunch of boys all lined up with a bow and arrow in their hands. They were wearing training outfits and then Sakura spotted Neji. He was standing behind the lined up boys and he said "Shoot!"

The second that he said that, all the archers shot the arrows to their assigned target. It was a remarkable sight to see, even though not all the archers hit the targets on the red spot, they still hit it with great precision. Almost all the arrows landed near each other.

"Your stances are weak. Straighten your back and take your aim again," Neji said loudly.

"Yes, sir!" they all said loudly.

Sakura saw them shuffled to straighten their back even more, and took their stances once again.

"Shoot!" Neji said. And once again all the archers shot their arrows, but still didn't hit the targets. Neji gave out a sigh, and told them to take a break. Sakura took that opportunity to run over to Neji and let him know that she was here. Neji saw Sakura coming toward him when he sat down on a bench near the tree.

"Haruno, you're late." Neji said to Sakura.

"I'm so sorry, Hyuuga-senpai." Sakura apologized. Neji didn't say anything after she apologized to him, so she took that as a good sign.

"Um…Hyuuga-senpai, what should I do now?"

"You could go run around the park like always."

"Ok." Sakura then walked away from the archer field, but then Neji called for her.

"Wait, Haruno."

"What is it, Hyuuga-senpai?"

"I'll go with you."

"Eh! Why?"

"Because I want to that's why. And plus I could use a little bit of a warm-up"

"Oh…"

Sakura was about to walked off again, but then turned around and faced Neji again.

"Um, why don't you lead the way, I might get lost again."

"Aa."

With that Neji, and Sakura proceeded to the front door and both began to run. They started to run evenly, but when they almost reached the park, Sakura started to slow down. She kept her eyes on the tree house. It looked exactly like it did yesterday when she ran past the park. Sakura couldn't put her finger on it, but something about that tree house really intrigued her. Maybe some day she'd go up there and find out what it is.

"Haruno, your pace is dropping. Speed it up," Neji said without looking back.

"O-okay!"

Then Sakura speeded up and caught up with Neji, and both arrived at the dojo at the same time. Neji led Sakura back to the archer field and told her to do her regular training near the trees so that he could keep an eye on her.

Neji took a bow and an arrow and started to lecture the boys about something. Then he shot the arrow and it landed right in the middle of the red target. Sakura watched in amazement at Neji's precision and accuracy when it came to archery. He was excellent, but of course she would never say that to his face.

Neji just increased her push-ups to thirty-five for the past few days. But unfortunately, Sakura could barely go to twenty-five, let alone thirty-five. Then after that she had to do fifty sit-ups. Sakura struggled to do her push-ups has caught Neji attention, and he went to her.

"I don't want to be known as a cruel mentor. So don't push yourself too hard, or else you'll injure yourself. Take a break if you want to." He said.

"O-oka-" Neji walked off before Sakura could finish her word.

--

**Two weeks later**

Back at school, Sakura and Naruto just came out from Sakamoto-sensei. Both had frowns on their faces and were holding a piece of paper in their hands.

"I swear that teacher is out to get me. How can I get a 40? I studied for that damn test!" Sakura said.

"Same goes for me." Naruto agreed with Sakura, while nodding.

"But you never study." Sakura stated.

"I know. I just like to say that." Sakura chuckled at Naruto's comment. Both laughed softly until an unexpected person arrived at the scene. It was none other then Hyuuga Neji, also known as Sakura's mentor, just in case anyone forgot.

"Hey Neji, what are you doing here?" Naruto asked. Neji looked at Naruto then at Sakura, and Neji walked right past him, as if he didn't want to answer Naruto's question.

"Haruno, come with me," Neji said and started to walk off in a different direction, which indicated that Sakura should follow him.

"Ok, but wait a minute." Sakura then turned to Naruto and was about to say good bye, but then Neji turned back with a hint of anger on his face.

"Now!" he commanded. Then he began to drag Sakura by her backpack and walked off. Sakura could barely give Naruto a proper good-bye before she left.

They both walked in silence and when they reached the dojo, Neji led Sakura into a room instead of the usual training ground.

"I heard from her teacher that you've been slacking off lately." He said.

"I wouldn't call it slacking off, really." she answered.

"Then how can you explain your poor test grade?"

"What does it matter to you? And beside, Sakamoto-sensei has a grudge against me ever since I was in her class. She probably gave me a bad grade on purpose."

"No, she didn't. Because I was the one who graded your paper and everybody else in the class."

"Why were you grading our paper anyways, senpai?" Sakura asked.

"I was her teacher assistant (TA for short) for the day. But that doesn't matter right now. What matters to me is that why did you do so poorly on it?"

"Who knows…?" Sakura shrugged it off as if she didn't care.

"I know! And do you know what? Your bad performance is giving the other teachers the impression that I haven't taught you anything for the past few weeks."

"What does it matter to you, anyways?" Sakura asked.

"It matters because I am your mentor, and when you get bad grades like this, it makes me look bad."

"So, this is about your stupid reputation, is it?" Sakura was starting to feel her rage toward her mentor. "Urgg…." Sakura grunted.

"Fine! Be that way. If I can't teach you by just making you do push-ups and running, then you leave me no choice but to use the last resort."

"Uh…what are you talking about?" Sakura asked with a hint of nervousness and fear.

"Come with me." Neji then proceeded to another room with Sakura following from behind. He led her to the kitchen and from the looks of it, it hadn't been used a lot because there was a lot of grease and dirt with shoe prints on the floor.

"Go grab a sponge or cloth and a bucket over there." Neji ordered.

Sakura didn't know what Neji was up to, but judging from the way he looked it wasn't pretty. Sakura could feel something was wrong but she couldn't figure out what it was. But then Sakura did what she was told, and grabbed a dirty old cloth from the counter and a bucket near it.

"What do you want me to do with this?" Sakura said with the most questionable face ever.

Neji smirked at what he was about to say to her. "I want you to scrub the entire floor in this kitchen room."

"WHAT!! You got to be kidding me?? I'm not doing that!!" Sakura protested.

"Do I look like I'm joking to you?" Neji glared.

"No! But still, I am not doing it. Look at the floor. It's so dirty and greasy and…urg…"

"Exactly my point. This will teach you to never again fail another test or else you will have to scrub a different floor each and everyday."

"You can't make me." Sakura glared at him

"I can and I will." Neji glared back with more forces. Both continued their glaring until Neji threaten to call her mom and principal, and have them decide her punishment instead. Knowing her principal, Tsunade, she probably has something more evil than what Neji gave her to do.

"F-Fine." Sakura gave up.

Sakura filled the bucket with water and grabbed the cloth and started to scrub the greasy floor. Neji watched her from a distance away to make sure that he was not in her way. A few minutes have passed and Sakura continued to scrub the floor. She was done with one corner and now she went to another corner.

"You're lucky it is Friday, and there's nobody here, or else you'd be humiliated."

"Lucky me," Sakura said sarcastically.

Sakur's legs and back were getting tired from all the bending, and so she stood up for a while. Then Neji approached her and she looked up at him. She was about to say something, but when she looked up at him and saw his serious face and she stopped any attempt to say anything.

"Tired?" he asked. Sakura didn't say anything and she just gave him a nod.

"Well then, that should teach you a lesson not to slack off again."

Sakura nodded again and lowered her head. She bent her knees and began to scrub the floor again. Neji continued to watch Sakura. Then something popped in his head, and so he thought that might be a good idea.

"Haruno…" he began, which got Sakura's attention and she raised her head a bit to see him.

"Tell you what. If you pass your test next time then you won't have to clean the floor ever again. How about it?" he asked.

This took Sakura by surprise but she was happy even more. She got off from the floor and jumped in joy.

"Really, Hyuuga-senpai?"

"Aa."

"Yay!!" Sakura started to do a victory dance.

"But!" then she stopped.

"But what?" she asked.

"But only if that test is above a passing grade."

"Uh…what do you mean by that, senpai?"

"It means what if sounds like. You have to get a grade that is not barely a passing grade but above it. For example, if the test is worth one hundred percent, then the passing grade would be a sixty percent. I want you to get more than a sixty percent in order for my deal to maintain."

"Ohhh I see. So all I have to do is to get a grade higher than a sixty percent then I won't have to scrub this stupid floor again?"

"That's right."

"That should be easy."

"You talk big, but can you do it?" Neji smirked.

"Just watch me."

"Fine. So do we have a deal?" Neji extended his hand toward Sakura, and she looked at his hand for a few second.

"Deal." She said while shaking his hand and that sealed the deal.

"But for now, you still have to finish cleaning the floor." he stated.

"Ohhh…..man…." She moaned.

* * *

**A/N: Ok! Five chapters down and many more to go. This story will have a lot of chapters, so don't expect it to end anytime soon. As usual, I don't want any Flame. **

**Personally, I don't like this chapter, and don't ask me why, I just don't. I just want to kill some time before I get to the climax of the story (but even so, I don't consider it to be the climax). So in other words, I might not like any of the up coming chapters (with the exception of the next chapter, though)**

**Oh yea! Sorry, if it seems that Neji and Sakura relationship is taking to long to develop. Just bear with me and you won't be disappointed.**

**Next Chapter: Babysitting**

_sacredairbga7_


	6. Babysitting

_A/N: OMG!! It took me so long to finish this chapter. You people better like this it because I put a lot of effort into it. I try to put a lot of creative ideas and some funny parts. And also some romance between Neji and Sakura. Well, it's not exactly the cutest scenes when they interact, but at least it's a step up of their relationship. And yes, they will fall in love……..eventually, but not just yet, not now. It's still too soon and I don't want to rush things._

_Damn, this chapter is longer than chapter 3. And I put a lot more thought and effort into this one. It's 14 pages!_

_Also visit my profile to find out what was I doing while writing this chapter. You'll find it at the top of the profile and it's in italic. A word of warning though, it will be very confusing. You'll know what I mean when you read it._

_Now on with the story!!_

--

**Summary:** **Neji x Sakura **Meet Haruno Sakura, a typical junior high school prankster. When her prank got out of hand, the school principal decides to assign Sakura a mentor. Sakura thinks it's going to be a hell but things might not be as bad as Sakura thinks. AU and hopefully not too much OOC

**Genre: **Drama/Romance

A/N - Author Note

_Italic - thoughts_

**Bold – emphasis on the word**

**Original Characters:**

**Kinomoto Rika-** mother of Touya and Taji

**Kinomoto Touya-** older brother of Taji, 2 years old

**Kinomoto Taji-** younger of Touya, 9 months old

* * *

**Troublemaker**

**Chapter 6: Babysitting**

Two days later

Neji was in his room mediating. He has his eyes closed, legs crossed, and hands on his knees. His was sitting up-right on his bed and was about to deepen his meditation when he heard a knock on the door. He immediately shot opened hit eyes and glared at the door, but he still kept his cool and asked "Who is it?"

"It's me." A man voice answered.

"Come in." Neji recognized the voice.

Then the door opened and it revealed a middle aged man.

"Neji, are you busy this afternoon?"

"Why do you ask, Hiashi-sama?" Neji was curious as to why his uncle ask him something like that. Hiachi wasn't the type that would meddle in others personal life and wouldn't ask about it.

"Kinomoto-san has asked me to do a favor for her."

"Kinomoto? Isn't she our next door neighbor? What did she asked you, Hiashi-sama?"

"I assumed that you still remember Touya?"

Neji nodded. He didn't really comprehend what this conversation was going.

"Recently, she had another son, his name is Taji, and he is just 9 months old."

"I don't get what you're trying to say, Hiashi-sama. Please get to the point." Neji tried to say it as politely as he can, but then his attempt has failed because he sounded irritated and impatient.

"My point is Kinomoto-san has asked me to ask you to baby sit her two sons while she will be away this afternoon."

Neji was stoked dumb folded. "Did you already promise her?" Neji asked as he scooted off his bed and stood up on the floor.

"I ate the manjyuu that she made, so I can not refuse her favor." **(A/N: I took that idea from Prince of Tennis. It's a custom in Japan when you eat someone's gift after he/she asked for a favor, you can't refuse. BTW manjyuu means bean-paste bun)**

**--**

**Later that day**

Sakura came to the dojo like she always did, and she came just on time to see Neji was about to leave out the front door.

"Hyuuga-senpai, where are you going?" Sakura asked.

"I'm going to the next door neighbor house." Neji answered.

"What for?"

"To baby sit."

"Oh…" Neji started to walk away. When Neji was about ten feet away, Sakura ran to his side and said, "Wait…"

Neji didn't stop but he did slow down when he heard Sakura called out to him.

"What about my training today?" she asked.

"You have to do it without me." he said.

Neji began to walk away again. Then a thought came to Neji and he turned his face around and saw Sakura was about to step inside the dojo. Then he called out to her, and that made her halted and tilted her head to look him.

"How about help me baby sit?" Neji asked.

Neji's question shocked Sakura. She pondered about it for a few seconds and then she turned her full attention to him.

"No, thank you. I rather train today, and besides, I'm not good with kids." Sakura said and proceeded to go inside the dojo, but then she stopped again because Neji said something that caught her attention.

"Starting today your training will double." Neji stated. Sakura had already took one foot over the door but then stopped in her track and she just stood there like a statue. From behind, Neji could only see Sakura back, but what he didn't know was that Sakura left eye was twitching.

She then turned around slowly and glared at Neji.

"You're joking. You can't just change my training schedule like that." Sakura tried to control her anger.

"Try me." Neji threatened.

"You can't to that." Sakura shouted to Neji, but then he turned around and started to walk away again.

"Hyuuga-senpai!" Sakura shouted. Then Neji came to a halt and turned around to look at Sakura with an unusual expression on his face.

"W-what..?" Sakura shuttered.

"Tell you what. I'll make you a deal."

"You mean another deal? We've already had a deal before."

"Fine, whatever. I'll make you _another_ deal.

"O..kay…shoot!"

"You help me baby sit the little toddlers and in return you don't have to train today."

"No way!" Neji took one step toward Sakura.

"Absolutely not!" another step forward.

"You can't change my mind!" another step.

"No way!" another step.

"No!" another step.

"I said NO!" another step.

"I told you already, I'm not good with kids!" Sakura cried.

"Hyuuga-senpai!" Within two seconds, Neji was in front of Sakura. "You can't make me…" Sakura murmured to herself as Neji continued to stare at her.

**Three minutes later**

Ding…

Dong…

"Neji-san, it's good to see you again." Rita greeted.**(Look above at the summary if you don't know who she is)**

"Nice to see you too, Kinomoto-san." Neji greeted back.

"And who is this lovely young lady next to you?" Rita asked.

"_How the hell did I end up like this?"_ Sakura mentally slapped herself over and over again.

"Her name is Haruno Sakura. She's here to help me to baby sit the little boys." Neji answered.

"That's great to hear. Nice to meet you, Sakura-san." Rita smiled and waved to Sakura.

"Nice to meet you too, Kinomoto-san." Sakura was out of her thoughts and waved back to the woman in front of her.

"Kaa-chan…!" a voice cried out from inside the house. After a few seconds a little boy ran out and bumped into his mother legs and started to hug them.

"Kaa-chan…"

"What is it, Touya-chan?"

"Take me with you. I want to come with you."

"No, Touya. It would be easier for me to go alone and more fun for you stay at home."

"But Kaa-chan…"

"Touya-chan, we've already discussed about his, and besides you get to stay home with Neji. You do remember Neji, don't you?"

Touya raised his head to look at the person next to his mom, and his face cheered up almost immediately.

"Neji-nii-chan!!" Touya ran up to Neji and hugged Neji's legs because he was not tall enough to reach Neji's waist.

Neji bent down and touched Touya's shoulder which signaled him to let go of Neji's leg. Neji softly rubbed the little boy head.

"How you're doing, kiddo?"

"I'm fine." Touya putted on the biggest grin that he has while looking at Neji. A few seconds later, Touya turned his gazed to the girl next Neji and looked at her with a confuse face.

"Neji-nii-chan, who is that nee-chan?"

"Huh-ohh…her name is Haruno Sakura. She will help me look after you today."

Touya continued to stare at Sakura and then out of nowhere he asked, "Neji-nii-chan is she your girlfriend?"

Sakura and Neji eyes widened in shock. Sakura was blushing madly on the outside and inside she was screaming. _"What the hell!! Did that boy just ask if I am Hyuuga-senpai girlfriend??"_

Neji, on the other hand has a hint of redness on his cheek but not as much as Sakura. There was a strange and uncomfortable silence after Touya asked his question. Sakura was trying to look away so that no one can see her blushing. Even Neji stayed silent that entire time. The first one to break the silent was Kinomoto.

"I am so sorry, Sakura-san. Touya-chan doesn't know any better. I apologized for his rudeness."

"I-It's ok, Kinomoto, he's just a child. I won't hold it against him."

"I'm so glad to hear that. Now I can go with less worry knowing that I have such reliable and trustworthy babysitter."

"Thank you." Neji and Sakura said at the same time.

Then the two teens entered the house. They walked to the living room, where Neji and Sakura saw a TV set in the middle of the room, a bed that was a couple of feet away from the TV, and there was a coach (fit for three person) against the wall, but it was slightly tilted to that you can watch TV when you sat on it.

"You already met my oldest son, Touya. Now let me introduce to you my youngest son, Touya little brother." Rita said.

Rita walked over to her baby boy and he was sitting on the bed. "Taji-chan...look who's here to play with you…" she said in a her sweetest voice.

Little Taji, who was watching Barney, looked up at his mom. He was sucking on a rubber toy and you could see his drool all over the toy. Rita came over to him and picked him up from under the arms and putted him on her hip. The Rita walked over to where Neji and Sakura stood.

"Neji-san, Sakura-san, this is my little boy Taji-chan." Rita said. Sakura and Neji waved hi to the baby, but in returned Taji continue to suck on his little toy.

"Taji-chan, say hi to your babysitter. Come on say….hi!" Rita holded his tiny hand and was waving it around. Sakura and Neji just looked at the Rita, who was trying to help her son to talk. "Now…say….mama!...ma…ma…"

The baby opened his mouth but only more drool came out. "Oh well, maybe it's still too early for him to talk." Rita said in a disappointed voice. Then she brought Taji on the bed and played with him some more.

That went on for about 5 minutes, and then Sakura checked the clock on the wall and leaned over to Neji and asked, "Isn't time for her to go?" Neji then looked at the clock also and he gave out a sighed before he spoke up.

"Kinomoto-san, what about your appointment?" he asked, which interrupted Rita playing with her sons. Somewhere between 2 and 3 minutes ago, Touya had joined in on the fun. Upon hearing Neji question, Rita converted her eyes to her wristwatch and she stood up immediately.

"You're right, Neji. It is time for me to leave." Then she bended down and kiss her sons good-bye. Sakura and Neji watched as Rita got her purse and ran toward the door. Before the sound of the door closed, Rita called out, "I'll be home soon. Take care!"

Then Sakura and Neji turned around and found the two little boys were watching TV. So they decided to sit down next to the kids. Neji was on Touya side and Sakura was on Taji side.

Meanwhile, Rita was driving in her car then the light turned red and she stopped the car. Something was bugging her but she didn't know what it was. _"Hmm…I think forgetting something but I don't know what it is."_ She pondered over what she had forgotten and then the light turned green. _"Oh well, whatever it might be, I'm sure it's not that important."_ Then she continued to drive off.

Back to the babysitter

Touya was jumping and dancing along the song on Barney and Taji who could barely stood up, just sat on the bed with Neji and Sakura. But then suddenly, Taji started to cry. Sakura, who was next to him, looked over at him immediately.

"What's wrong with him?" Sakura asked.

"I don't know." said Neji.

As Taji continued to cry some more, Sakura and Neji started to panic. Then Touya came over to the bed and nudged on Neji hand. "I think he needs a diaper change." Touya stated.

Sakura and Neji looked at Touya, then at each other, and then lastly at Taji. Then Neji and Sakura looked at each other again. They had on a face that said 'So are you going to do it?'. After a minute of staring at each other and Sakura saw how Taji kept crying and it didn't seem like he would stop anything soon. So she picked Taji up like his mom did before and stood up.

"I'll do it." she said. Then Neji looked up at Sakura with a confused face. Obviously, Neji was surprised by Sakura sudden volunteer. She smiled at him and turned her attention to Touya. "Come on, Touya show me where the diapers are?" she asked the little boy.

"Ok!" Touya cheerily agreed. Then Touya skipped off toward the bedroom and Sakura followed from behind.

Sakura slowly opened the diaper and threw it away. Then she putted a new diaper on for Taji and his crying has reduced. Finally, Taji has calmed down and Sakura gave him his rubber toy and he began to chew on it. Sakura watched as Taji chew his toy. _"He's not so bad when he doesn't cry. Actually, he's kind of cute."_ Sakura smiled sweetly at him.

Touya has already gone out to the living room when Sakura came out there. She sat back down on the bed. Touya was now sitting on the floor, which made him closer to the TV. But neither Neji nor Sakura told him to scoot back it was still a good distance away from the screen.

Everything was back to normal, and the teens just sat on the bed watching the kids. Then suddenly, Taji started to cry….again. Sakura looked at him with an annoyed face. "What now?!" Sakura asked.

"I think he is hungry." said Touya as he took a brief second to turned around and inform Sakura.

"Well, what does he eat?" Sakura asked.

"He doesn't eat much." Touya answered and the teens looked at him with confused faces.

"Ok then, what can he eat." Sakura asked.

"He mostly drink milk from a bottle." Touya said.

"Ok, I'll go get him some milk. Hyuuga-senpai, can you look after them while I'm gone?"

"Sure." Neji agreed.

Touya then turned his head slightly from the TV after he heard what Sakura addressed to Neji. He pondered about it for less than a second and then he continued to watch his favorite show.

Sakura got back with the milk in her hand. She handed the bottle of milk to Taji and he sucked on it like it was his first time drinking milk. Sakura felt satisfied with her work and she sat down next to him. Neji was on the couch reading the newspaper, since there's nothing else to do.

The only sound in the room was the song on TV and the clapping that came from Touya because he was clapping along with the song. Then the commercial came on and Touya stopped clapping. Sakura was bored so she end up watching the little boy do his childish tactics. Then Sakura converted her eyes to Taji, who was almost done with the bottle of milk. _"Man, he's fast!" _Sakura sweat dropped.

Then suddenly Touya yelled out, which Sakura surprised out of her skin. Neji just simply removed his eyes from the newspaper and looked at Touya.

"What's wrong?" Neji asked Touya.

"Look! Look! Look!" Touya pointed to the television screen.

"What? What is it?" Sakura asked as she looked at the screen. The commercial was introducing brown teddy bears. Then Sakura raised an eyebrow and looked at Touya.

"So? It's just a commercial about teddy bears." Sakura said plainly.

"I have that bear!" Touya stated. Sakura narrowed her eyes and thought that there was no point to this and sat back down. Then the commercial was over but Touya was still very excited and he kept jumping up and down.

Then Touya walked over to Neji and poked his leg. Neji lowered the newspaper and looked at Touya.

"Neji-nii-chan, let me show you my teddy." Touya said cheerfully.

Neji raised an eyebrow. "Ok…where is it?"

"Huh?" Touya then looked at his hand and he was holding a reddish-orange lion instead of a teddy bear. Then Touya burst into fake tears and started to yell.

"Wahh…..where's my teddy?!" Touya cried. Neji put away the newspaper and tried to calm Touya down. Then Sakura came over and tried to do the same thing.

"Calm down, Touya. It's just a stuffed bear." Sakura said.

"No, it's not!! It's MY favorite teddy bear. And I want my teddy bear!" Touya cried some more, but there was no real tears. **(Hehe, most of those childish behaviors I got from my cousins. They cried, but their eyes were not wet. They're such fakers)**

"Ok, ok, I'll go find your teddy bear. How is that? Now can you please stop whining?" Sakura pleaded because her ears couldn't take anymore of the little boy fake crying.

Touya stopped his ranting and nodded a yes.

"Come on tell me where you last saw it?" Sakura asked. Then she took Touya hand and he led her into one of the bedroom. When Sakura entered the room, she knew right away it was the boy's room because toys were everywhere.

10 minutes later

Sakura and Touya came out of the room and into the living room.

"I can't find it. It's not in there." Sakura said.

"Wahh….! I want my teddy! I want my teddy! I want my teddy! I want my teddy and I want it now!!" Touya cried.

"Ok, ok. I get the point." Sakura said. Then she turned to Neji who was still sitting on the couch reading the newspaper. "Hyuuga-senpai, can you help me find Touya's teddy bear. We can't find it."

Neji looked up from the newspaper, and then he folded it up and gave her a nod. For the next half an hour, Sakura, Neji, and sometimes Touya were searching for the missing teddy bear. They looked under the bed, around the couch, on the bed, next to the bed, and all over the living room. But they still couldn't find it. So then they proceed to the kitchen and searched all the obvious places that a bear could be. Maybe the bear fell under the dinner table. Or maybe it was in the refrigerator. Nope not there.

Then, they proceeded to search in the backyard. Who knows, maybe Touya played outside and put it out there and forgot to brought it back. But again, no luck. After a whole 20 minutes of searching, they wanted to take a break and sat on the bed next to Taji.

Speaking of Taji, he was unusually quiet and behaving himself. He sat on the bed and watch TV the whole time while the gang searched for the missing bear. Then Sakura looked straight at the TV, and a thought came to her head. She then walked over to the television and over the thing. And……._"Bingo."_ There it was; a brown stuffed bear was behind the TV.

"I found it." Sakura proclaimed, and then held up the stuffed bear and showed it to everybody. Touya rushed over and hug the bear to death.

After the search was over, everybody went back to the living room and everything was back to normal until….

"I'm hungry." whined Touya. Sakura looked at him with a disgusted face. She gave out a deep sighed before answering.

"What do you want to eat, Touya?" Sakura asked.

But before Touya could answer back to Sakura, Neji cut in. "Actually, I'm kind of hungry too." he stated.

Sakura gave out a groan, but then she heard her stomach growling. She blushed out of embarrassment and then laughed it off. "Heh, I guess I'm hungry too." she muttered that only she could hear.

"So, what do you _all_ want to eat?" she asked.

"Let's check the kitchen, maybe Kinomoto left something for them to eat." Neji said.

"Yeah, and maybe some for us too." Sakura whispered to herself. Her stomach was growling again.

Then everybody headed toward the kitchen and Neji was carrying Taji in his arms. Then Sakura spotted some rice ball on the counter.

"Hey, look. Your mom must have left those for you boys." Sakura said to Touya. Then Touya eyed the food like it was a disgusting meat. Then out of the blue Touya said….

"I want spaghetti with meatball." Touya demanded.

Sakura eye twitched. She did not feel like making some spaghetti right now. So another opinion was to sweet talk him out of the spaghetti idea.

"But your mom left you some delicious rice ball. Why don't you eat that instead?" Sakura said sweetly.

"I want spaghetti." Touya repeated. Sakura eye began to twitch again.

"I want spaghetti! I want spaghetti! I want spaghetti! I want spaghetti! I want spaghetti!" Touya kept repeating it over and over that he wanted spaghetti. Sakura couldn't take his whining anymore.

"OK! I'll make you some spaghetti!" She shouted.

"YAY!!" Touya threw his hands up in the air. Then Sakura told him and the others to wait in the living room and when she done, she would call them.

Neji walked out of the kitchen and a minute later he walked back.

"Haruno, need some help?" Neji asked. Sakura was busy getting everything ready.

"No thanks, Hyuuga-senpai. You could watch the kids while I'm doing this." Sakura answered.

"Are you sure? Have you ever cooked before?" Neji asked. Then Sakura stopped what she was doing and converted her attention toward her mentor.

"Of course I have!" Sakura putted her hands of her hips and glared at Neji.

"Ok, fine. I'm just making sure." Then Neji walked out of the kitchen leaving a fuming Sakura. She took it as an insult and was determined to prove to him that she could it.

20 minutes later

"Ok, everybody the spaghetti is finish!" Sakura yelled from the kitchen.

Then Touya rushed into the kitchen and took a seat right away. While Neji took his time and strolled over to Taji and picked him up and then walked toward the kitchen. Everyone took their seats and started to chow down on the spaghetti. Mainly, it was Touya who was gobble the spaghetti, everyone else like Sakura and Neji took their time. Since, Taji couldn't eat spaghetti yet, he just sat there sucking on a bottle of milk that Sakura just made for him.

Sakura looked at Neji for his reaction with the food she just prepared. Touya was eating it but that didn't mean anything because he was still a child. But Neji was a different story. She wanted to impress him with her cooking. She couldn't wait any longer; she has to ask him now!

"Umm…Hyuuga-senpai…h-how the food?" Sakura asked.

Neji looked at Sakura and then back at his plate of spaghetti.

"It's good." Neji said, which brought a wave of relief to Sakura. Sakura gave out a deep sigh afterward because she was holding her breath. _"Actually, it's really good. Didn't know Haruno could cook so well." _Neji smirked as he continued to eat his food.

A few minutes later, Sakura had to go to the restroom, and so she left the dinner table. Neji and Touya were still eating. They had not finished their plates yet, and then suddenly the phone rang. Neji got up from his seat and walked out of the kitchen and into the living room because that was where the phone was.

Then Sakura came out of the restroom and met Neji on her way to the kitchen.

"Who was on the phone, Hyuuga-senpai?" She asked.

"It was Kinomoto-san. She said she will be back soon."

"Oh…."

Then both teens entered the kitchen, but what they found stun them. The boys were throwing spaghetti at each other, and their clothes were covered with spaghetti and spaghetti sauce. Not to mention, the floor and the wall have sauces on them as well. Neji was surprise but not as nearly surprise as Sakura.

"What happened in here?!" She shouted.

Touya and Taji stopped throwing spaghetti at each other and looked at their babysitters.

Touya muttered a, "Uh-oh..." and dropped what he was holding. Sakura was outraged. She cooked them spaghetti and they used it to throw it at one another. Also, she and Neji were just gone for 3 minutes and when they came back, look at the mess those two boys did!

Sakura was really mad, but being mad over it won't solve anything. And plus, Kinomoto-san was coming home soon, so they really need to clean up.

"Ok boys, let's get you clean up. Touya you first." Sakura said and motioned Touya to follow her.

"Hyuuga-senpia, can you take care of the clean up?" Sakura asked Neji.

"Sure."

Then Sakura and Touya went inside the bedroom, but not before cleaning off some of the spaghetti on Touya first. Sakura told Touya to wait in the bathroom while she tried to find him new clean cloth to wear. When Sakura found some nice ones for Touya to wear, she entered the bathroom and told Touya to take off his cloth.

"Ne, nee-chan, why do you call Neji-nii-chan "Hyuuga-senpai" instead of just Neji?" Touya asked as Sakura wiped the sauces that were on Touya arms with a towel.

"Well, because he is older than me." Sakura answered.

"Then why don't you call him Neji-nii-chan instead?"

"Well, it's just not appropriate." Sakura was done with his arms and went to his feet.

"Why isn't it appropriate? By the way what is appropriate mean?"

"It just isn't, and appropriate means that is not right."

"Why isn't it right? Why do you have to call Neji-nii-chan that? Huh? Huh?" Sakura eyebrows began to twitch.

"Because he is older than me and he is my mentor."

"What's a mentor?" Touya asked as Sakura slipped his shirt over his head.

"A person that watches over you."

"Neji-nii-chan watches over me too. Then is he MY mentor too?"

"Well, no, he is your babysitter." Sakura answered while she finished putting on his pant. Touya still had diaper on.

"Neji-nii-chan is older than me too, so should I call him Hyuuga-senpai too?"

"No, call him what you do now."

"OK!" he said in a really enthusiastic way. "I like to call him Neji-nii-chan better anyways. Well then, are you going to call him Neji-nii-chan too?"

Sakura stopped for a moment and pondered about Touya question.

"Why not, I suppose it wouldn't hurt." Sakura answered.

"YAY!!" Touya threw his hands in the air. Sakura was finish dressing him and she just smiled gently at him.

Then Neji showed up with Taji in his arms "What were you two talking about?" Neji asked.

Sakura and the Touya looked at each other then looked at Neji and said at the same time. "Nothing." Then both of them laughed and Neji raised an eye brow.

"Come on Touya, I have to clean Taji now. Go outside and help Neji-senpai clean up the mess you made earlier." Sakura said as she faced Touya.

"OK!" Touya said with a high spirit.

Neji eyes widen a little bit upon hearing Sakura calling him by his first name, but then he forgot about it and handed over Taji to Sakura and head out of the bathroom.

"OK!" Touya said with a high spirit.

When Touya got out, Neji was finished cleaning and he was hanging the towels up. So then, Neji told Touya to wait there and do nothing. Afterward, Sakura was done cleaning Taji and she came into the kitchen with Taji in her arms. She placed him on the dinner table, which is now clean, and sighed.

Touya came over and sat down on the chair and Neji was just leaning on the refrigerator with his arms crossed. There was a silence in the room for the first time in a while.

"Umm…" Sakura spoke up to break the silent. "I'm guessing no one's full yet, right?" Sakura asked. They all nodded. "Well, then I guess we could eat those rice balls." Sakura suggested. She didn't want to cook anything else; one, she didn't have the strength because she haven't eaten anything yet, and two, there was nothing else in the refrigerator. She might want to remind Rita to do some grocery shopping when she got back.

No one made an answer, so Sakura assumed that everybody was fine with eating rice balls. So she got them out and they all sat at the table and ate together.

Afterward, the kids came out to the living room and continued to watch TV, while Sakura was finishing cleaning up. Neji was outside watching the kids. Touya and Taji were on the floor clapping their hands to the beat of the song. Then Sakura showed up and she sat right next to Neji, who was on the bed.

Then for some reason Taji saw Sakura has come in and he started to crawl to her on his hands and feet. Sakura and Neji didn't take notice of Taji was heading for them until the baby boy tapped on Sakura leg. Sakura then looked down at Taji and Neji was the second to notice that the boy was there. Both saw Taji had raised his arms toward Sakura, which most of the time indicated that the baby want to be picked up.

But then Neji was confused by the baby boy action and looked at Sakura for an answered. Sakura, on the other hand, was not confused and she understood him completely. She gave Taji a quick smile before bending down and picked him up from the floor. She turned Taji around so that he would be able to watch TV while sitting on her lap.

"Looks like he developed a liking to you." Neji stated after witnessing the whole scene.

"That's hard to believe. He gave me much trouble when I clean him." Sakura said.

Taji was happily sucking on his binkie while enjoying sitting on Sakura lap and watching TV. A few minutes later, Sakura eyes were starting to get heavy. She glanced over at Neji. He had a bored face on and was staring at the wall. Then she looked at Touya who was addicted to the screen in front of him. Then finally she converted her eyes to the baby who was sitting on her lap, Taji.

Sakura ten had a satisfied smile on her face and then without her noticing it, she had lean on Neji shoulder. Neji felt Sakura head was on his shoulder but he decided not to move.

Sakura mind was clouded and she was in a dreamy state, so then she couldn't think straight. So when Neji didn't move, Sakura thought that she was leaning on the wall. A very soft wall. Sakura eyes were half way closed, but she prevented herself from falling asleep.

Seconds later, her eyes were getting heavier and heavier. Then with here eyes half way closed, she eyed the kids in front of her and then she muttered "I wish I had a perfect family like this." She thought the same thing in her head and thought that nobody had heard her. But unfortunately, it did not go unnoticed by Neji, who was right next to her.

He looked at her and noticed that she was breathing evenly, which indicated that she had fell asleep. Neji then noticed how closed he was to her and a little blush crept up his cheeks. Then Neji saw Taji was also asleep and still had his binkie in his mouth. Neji tried to not wake Sakura up while he swung his arm over her head and gently laid her down on the bed.

Neji also gently placed Taji next to Sakura. He looked toward Taji, who had curled up and cuddled closer to Sakura. Neji gave out an amusement chuckled and then he glanced over to Sakura's sleeping form. Her hair was dispersed all over her face. _"When did she untie her hair?" _Apparently, Neji didn't notice that Sakura **had** her hair down since after she cleaned the kids and walked to the kitchen where they ate rice ball together.

Slowly, Neji brushed off some of Sakura's hair away from her face and examined her face. Her green eyes were closed but he could almost see it as if they were open. She was breathing from her nose and her mouth was closed. For the first time, Neji noticed that she has a gently form, especially when she was sleeping. Then suddenly Neji realized what had he been thinking for the pass couple of minutes and he stopped himself from thinking any further.

Then Neji converted his eyes to Touya, who was still glued to the TV. Neji then decided for everybody to take a nap, so then he got up and disappeared in to the kitchen and when he came back he has a bottle of milk in his hand.

"Touya, time to take a nap." Neji said.

Touya turned around after a few seconds later and said, "Awww…I don't wanna…"

"Come here and sleep next to Taji over here." Neji said as he showed where Taji laid.

"Awww…but I'm not sleepy." Touya pouted.

"Touya." Neji gave the little boy his serious tone of voice. Then Touya stood up facing Neji and pouted some more.

"Now turn off the TV and come here. I'll give you your bottle of milk." Neji stated.

"Humph, I don't want to drink milk." Touya said while he was still pouting. Then he turned off the TV then walked over the bed and climbed up on it and lay down next to his younger brother, Taji.

The order of the bodies that were on the bed are Sakura on the very end of the other side of the bed, then it was Taji, then Touya, and finally Neji would be at the end.

When Touya had settled down and was still pouting. Neji gave out a sighed and handed the boy his bottle of milk. "Here." Touya gladly took the bottle and started to suck on it. _"And he said he don't want to drink milk." _Neji thought.

Then Neji lay down next to Touya and putted his arms under his head and just laid there. Minutes later, his eyes were getting heavy, so then Neji decided to go to sleep but not before making sure that Touya had already fell asleep. When Neji saw that everyone had slept soundly and peacefully, he closed his eyes and let sleep consumed him as well.

**Later that day**

Rika came home to find her sons on the bed outside the living sleeping with Sakura and Neji. She gave out a smile and placed her stuff on the little table next to the entrance of the living room. Then she walked softly toward the bed. She gently touched Neji on the shoulder, which woke him up.

"…huh, wha?" was Neji replied.

Rita smiled at him. "I'm back." she whispered.

Neji rubbed his eyes to get a better vision. Then he finally got out of his sleepy state. "Ohh, welcome home Kinomoto-san."

"Aa, looks like you and Sakura-san had a rough day. I hope my boys didn't give you that much trouble."

"Of course not." Neji answered. Then he looked at Sakura and back at Rita. "I should wake Sakura now." he said.

Rita straighten up and just watched as Neji tried to wake Sakura up. And when she was finally awake, she carefully got off the bed without waking up the kids. Sakura, Neji, and Rita walked toward the door.

"Thank you for babysitting today, Neji-san, Sakura-san." said Rita.

"You're welcome." was Neji replied.

"No problem." Sakura answered.

Both the teens walked out of the house but then suddenly…

"Oh, wait a minute. Neji-san, Sakura-san." Rita called out to them.

"Yes?" both asked at the same time. They both turned around and took a few steps backward and then saw Rita was standing at the door and she was holding something on her hand.

"I brought those awhile ago. Please have some." Rita said while showing them the items.

Then the teens looked at what Rita was holding. It was mochi. And it has different kind of color on it.

"No thanks, Kinomoto-san. I don't eat sweets." Neji stated.

"Ohh too bad. What about you Sakura-san. A girl like you don't hate sweets, am I right?" Rita asked.

"Erm…well…no.." Sakura said.

"Good! Then please take some." Rita said cheerfully.

"Uh…sure…" Sakura grabbed a pink mochi from Rita plate. "Thanks, Kinomoto-san. One is good enough." Sakura smiled sweetly.

"You're welcome." Rita smiled back at Sakura.

"Have a good day you two. And thank you again for babysitting." Rita said while waving good-bye to the teens.

"No problem." Sakura waved back.

Then they both walked back to Neji's dojo and they stopped in front of the door.

"Sakura, a deal is a deal. You helped me baby sit today, so now you don't have to train today." Neji said.

"Really, Neji-senpai? Thanks!" Sakura was too excited and started to run off toward the direction of her house, without noticing Neji just called her by her first name.

* * *

**A/N: OMG! This chapter took me soooooooooo long to finish. I worked very very VERY hard on this chapter and I used a lot of my time thinking and developing the scenes. So you people like this chapter.**

**You don't know how hard I worked on this chapter, so be nice and don't FLAME me. **

**Aside from that, I like this chapter. I think it's really cute and funny. By the way, is anyone starting to get tired of all the training/filler chapters?... TOO BAD!! There will be more of that in the next two chapters.**

**Also, if you haven't notice at the top of this page, I rated the genre Drama/Romance for like 4 chapters already. But I didn't officially change it until now. So expect some drama soon, ok?**

**Next Chapter: Improvement **

_sacredairbga7 _


	7. Improvement

**Summary:** **Neji x Sakura **Meet Haruno Sakura, a typical junior high school prankster. When her prank got out of hand, the school principal decides to assign Sakura a mentor. Sakura thinks it's going to be a hell but things might not be as bad as Sakura thinks. AU and hopefully not too much OOC

**Genre: **Drama/Romance

A/N - Author Note

_Italic - thoughts_

**Bold – emphasis on the word**

* * *

**Troublemaker**

**Chapter 7: Improvement**

5 days later

"47."

"48."

"49."

"50."

Sakura lay back down on the ground. "You would think that I'll be used to it by now." Sakura said to herself. Sakura stood up and walked to Neji, who was drinking tea.

As if he knew she was coming he spoke up before she could say anything.

"I heard that you have a math test tomorrow."

"_How does he do that!" _she thought.

"Y-Yeah, I do have a test tomorrow. How did you know?"

"I'm your mentor. I suppose to know everything."

"Oh…"

"Do you have any other test that's coming up?"

Sakura giggled, "I thought you knew everything?" Sakura joked.

Neji grunted. "Whatever. Just don't forget our deal." He smirked when he saw Sakura reaction.

"Don't worry, I'll pass that test for sure." Sakura said confidently.

"Let's just see what will happen."

"Humph…" Sakura stood up and walked away. Neji chuckled beneath his breath.

The next day after lunch

There was a crowd when the teacher posted up the grades for the math test that they just took, and Naruto was in the crowd. When Naruto got close enough to see the results, he thought he was going blind because what he just saw was…

The list read…

The Test is out of 100 points

Haruno Sakura--99

Name--unimportant

Name--unimportant

skip some names

Yamanka Ino--80

Name--unimportant

Name--unimportant

Somewhere at the bottom…

Uzuamki Naruto--67

"Sa-Sa-Sa-Sa-Sa-Sa-Sa-SAKURA-CHAAAAANNNNNNNNN!" everyone covered their ears when they heard Naruto screamed.

**At the other side of the building**

Sakura was walking down the hallway and was munching on a strawberry mochi she has left over after lunch. Then suddenly Neji showed up next to her.

"Sakura, what did you got on your test?" Neji asked.

"I don't know. I'm going to go look right now." Sakura said while still chewing on the mochi.

"I'll go with you just in case you don't lie to me." he smirked.

"Yeah right, why would I do that? You'll find out later even if I did lie." Sakura said playfully and finished her last piece of the strawberry mochi. Then she heard Naruto screaming her name from down the hallway.

"SAKURA-CHAAAAANNNNNN!"

"What the-" Neji and Sakura said at the same time.

Naruto finally reached where Sakura was, and he putted his hands on his knees for support.

"Naruto, what's wrong?" Sakura asked.

"Y-Y-Your-your-test-" Naruto was panting really heavily and he couldn't finish her sentence.

Sakura looked at him with a questionable face and Neji raised an eye brow. When Naruto caught his breath, he straightened himself and took a deep breath.

"Sakura-chan, you got a 99 on your test."

Sakura eyes were widened and even Neji was shocked.

"Are you serious? Please tell me you are serious." Sakura asked.

"I'm serious." Naruto answered.

"Are you joking?"

"No! I am not joking. I am telling you the truth. You got a 99 on the test, for real!"

"For real, for real?"

"Yes, for real, for real! If you don't believe me then come see for yourself."

Then Sakura ran off and followed from behind her were Neji and Naruto. When the gang reached the scores board, Sakura immediately looked for her name and Neji was right next to her.

"Not bad, Sakura." Neji complimented.

"I can't believe! I got a 99! WOOHOO!" Sakura yelled and then did a victory dance. "See Neji-senpai? I told you that I can do it and I got the highest score too." Sakura stuck her tongue out at Neji.

"_Neji? Since when did Sakura-chan call him Neji instead of Hyuuga? And when did Neji call Sakura by her first name?"_ Naruto thought.

"Yeah, but let's just see how long you can maintain that grade." He smirked.

Sakura smile turned into a frown upon hearing the comment, and she started to glare at her mentor.

"Damn it! Why do you always have to spoil my fun?" Sakura whined.

"Because it's my job." He smirked again, which made Sakura glared at him more.

"Is not."

"Is to."

"Is not."

"Is to."

They continue their argument while Naruto was standing next to them. But Naruto didn't seem to listen to them at all. He tuned them out the minute he heard Sakura called Neji "Neji-senpai."

"I win the bet Neji-senpai." Sakura proclaimed proudly.

"_A bet? There was a bet?"_ Naruto mentally asked.

"Fine, I admit you won this time. But that doesn't mean that you can slack off again."

"Of course not! You should know me better than that."

"I do know you. That's why I'm worry. I would never know when you will go back to being your bad self again."

Sakura blinked twice. "I would never do that." Sakura tried to sound as innocent as possible.

Neji watched as Sakura pretending to act innocent. He sighed and just walked away.

"Uh…wait a second, Neji-senpai!" Sakura called out. Naruto was still standing there watching as Sakura ran to Neji.

Neji gave Sakura a 'what do you want' look. "Neji-senpai, can you tutor me in English? I have a big test coming up in two week." Sakura pleaded.

Neji looked at Sakura for a minute and then said, "Sure, get your books and meet me in the library."

"Ok! See you there." Sakura said cheerfully and skipped to her locker to get her books.

**In the library**

Neji was explaining to Sakura the different rules of grammar. Her test would include reading a four different sentences and figure out which one is the correct one. That involved a lot of grammar skills. While, Neji was lecturing, Sakura couldn't stop yawning for some reason.

Then Sakura couldn't take it anymore. She was having a headache from learning all the different rules, so she asked Neji if she could take a short break. Then Ino came out of no where and nudged Sakura lightly on the shoulder.

"Ne, ne, Sakura look at this." Ino said.

"What is it?" Sakura said in a bored tone.

"Isn't it cute?" Ino squealed and showed Sakura a picture in a magazine.

Sakura found herself staring at a bracelet that was cover in white gold and has the word "spring" written in gold on it. **(I'm not very good with describing jewelry. So I might change the description later on)**

"Yeah…it is…" Sakura murmured to herself that only she can hear.

Somewhere near the table where Ino, Sakura, and Neji sat; Naruto was listening on the girl's conversation.

"_It looks like Sakura-chan really like that bracelet. I'll get it for her on her birthday then."_ Naruto mentally praised himself for thinking up such a brilliant idea.

Neji sat just across from Sakura, and he was annoyed as hell. Girls could really be noisy sometimes. He didn't get why girls would freak out over a stupid piece of jewelry, but then again he would never know because he is not a girl, nor did he want to understand the feminine mind.

Naruto continued to watch the girls while Neji tried his best to ignore them. Suddenly, Sakura gave out a yawn and her face looked very tired.

Sakura turned to Neji and he continued to lecture her about some more rules. For the rest of the study period, Sakura could not stop yawning, but she still kept herself focus on her studies. Neji didn't pay much attention to Sakura yawning because he thought that she was just tired from the lack of sleep. Neji kept going on and on about the rules about grammar until study period was over.

* * *

**A/N: At the beginning, I started this story out of guilt because I didn't update my other story. But then I found out that the more I write this, the more I become attached to it. And now it is my absolute favorite fanfic to write about. **

**Next Chapter: Archery**

_sacredairbga7_


	8. Archery

**Summary:** **Neji x Sakura **Meet Haruno Sakura, a typical junior high school prankster. When her prank got out of hand, the school principal decides to assign Sakura a mentor. Sakura thinks it's going to be a hell but things might not be as bad as Sakura thinks. AU and hopefully not too much OOC

**Genre: **Drama/Romance

A/N - Author Note

_Italic - thoughts_

**Bold – emphasis on the word**

* * *

**Troublemaker**

**Chapter 8: Archery**

Five days later

Sakura was tipping her index finger on the desk rapidly. Her ears were heating up and it felt like it has burning red. She gulped when she saw Sakamoto-sensei turned to the row that which her desk was aligned. Sensei was getting closer and closer to Sakura's desk. Sakura could feel the sweat started to fall from her forehead and she wiped it off with her hand.

Sakamoto then arrived at Sakura's desk and on her hand was a bunch of papers that was faced down but then Sakura could see all the reds marks through the white sheets of paper. Sakamoto especially placed one sheet of paper on the desk and then continued to walk along the row. Sakura slowly turned over the piece of paper in front of her. Her eyes suddenly snapped shut and she could feel her heart beat was getting faster and faster.

"_This is it, Sakura. The moment of truth. Come on now, you can do it. Turn it over. NOW!"_Sakura then turned over the paper and scanned through it thoroughly. Sakura couldn't believe her eyes. On top of the paper was a number that has a circle around it. But what Sakura attention was the number itself that was circled. Sakura blinked a few times to clear her eyes and to make sure that her eyes were not deceiving her. Then she took another good look at it, blinked again, and then rubbed her eyes. It wasn't a dream. She really got the grade that she saw on the paper.

Sakura jumped out her desk and shouted, "YEAH!"

Everyone in the class converted their attention to Sakura. Even Sakamoto stopped passing the quiz back and took a look at Sakura.

"Miss Haruno, is there something that you would like to share with the class?" Sakamoto asked.

Sakura came back from her joyful world and then realized what she just did and blushed. "Uh...no…"

The class erupted into a fit of laughter and Sakura sank in her seat. Clearly, she was embarrassed of the situation. But inside she was grinning like crazy and decided to ignore the laughing that was surrounding her.

Class was over and Sakura was heading towards the door, when suddenly a voice called out her name. "Sakura-chan!"

Sakura turned around and saw Naruto was walking up to her. "What cha' got on your quiz?" he asked.

"Se-cr-et" Sakura said while waving her finger back and forth.

"Awww….why?"

"Because…!...uh…I'll tell you later. Bye!" Sakura then rushed out of the classroom door, leaving Naruto behind gawking.

Sakura was practically running through the hallway and it appeared that she was looking for somebody. A certain white-eyes teen, which happen to be right over THERE!

"Neji-senpai!" Sakura yelled while waving her hand to get his attention. Neji was lying under a tree and he has his hands under his head and his eyes were close.

Upon hearing his name, Neji opened his eyes to see who called him. He sat up straight and looked toward the direction where the voice was coming from. Then he saw pink-haired and knew exactly who it was. I mean how many people do you know that have pink hair?

Neji lay back down under the tree and closed his eyes again. Then Sakura had finally reached her mentor and she was panting but not very hard.

"Neji-senpai, didn't you hear me calling you?" Sakura asked.

"I did hear you. That's why I lay back down." he answered, still with his eyes closed. At this point, anyone could tell that Sakura was angry by that remark even if you were blind.

"What's that suppose to mean?" Sakura snapped.

"It means, if you don't have anything important to say then leave me alone."

Sakura frowned at his cold attitude. But then she won't let that get to her. "Look." She pulled out her quiz result and showed it to him. Neji opened his eyes in thinking that it was something important. Then he narrowed his eyes at what he saw.

"So? Does that suppose to mean something?" Neji said in a bored tone.

"Of course it means something! It's not everyday that I got a 50 out of 50 on my English quiz."

"Oh really? I'm not surprise. Didn't I help you study for it before?"

"_Damn, he's back to being a jackass." _Sakura thought.

"That was different. The one you helped me study for is an exam. This is a quiz, but then Sakamoto-sensei counted as half of a test grade. She said that it suppose to be good practice before the real exam." Sakura explained.

Neji stood up and walk toward Sakura, then he leaned forward to her ear, but not too close. "Good job." he said only loud enough for him and her to hear, and then walked away with a half smirk on his face. Sakura was left slightly blushed after Neji just complimented her. Then Sakura shook it off and giggled. _"Ok, maybe he's not a jackass anymore."_

The rest of the afternoon was the same as always. Sakura got to class and was bored out of her mind. Even though she had better grades than better, that didn't make any difference to her. All her classes were as boring as always.

When school was over, Sakura ran straight home and packed some mochi, then left her house, and then headed toward Neji's dojo. When Sakura arrived at the dojo, everything was quiet.

"_Oh yeah…! Today is Wednesday. No one is here."_

Sakura then walked to her usual training spot. But when she got there, she didn't see Neji anywhere. So she assumed that there was only one other place where he could be. The archery field.

When Sakura arrived at the archer field, she spotted Neji right away. But she didn't want to disrupt him because he was shooting arrows and seemed to be preoccupied. Sakura decided to sat down and wait for him to finish. She placed her lunchbox on the table and sat down.

After 20 minutes of waiting, Sakura couldn't take it anymore. Neji never practice this much better when he knew he suppose to be training with her. Sakura stood up from her seat and walked over to Neji, she didn't care if he yelled at her. Making her wait for 20 minutes was where she draws the line.

"Neji-senpai!" Sakura shouted to get his attention. When Neji heard his name being called, he turned to look for the person who called him. To his surprise it was Sakura.

"Sakura, what are you doing here?" Neji asked with a confused face.

Sakura stopped and looked at Neji with an equally confused face. "What are you talking about, Neji-senpai? I always come here after school."

Neji thought about it for a few seconds and then respond, "Starting today, you don't have to come here anymore."

Sakura was more confuse than before. "What do you mean by that?!"

Neji then took a deep breath. "I mean, your 4 weeks of training was over yesterday. So you don't have to come here everyday after school anymore."

Sakura was disappointed by the news. "So wait a minute, does that mean that you're not my mentor anymore?" Sakura asked.

"No, I'm still your mentor. It's just that you don't have to train anymore. Don't worry; I'll still help you with your homework." Neji replied.

"I see…" Sakura whispered that only she could hear. She was kind of relief that Neji was still her mentor. Neji went back to what he was doing. Sakura walked back to the table and sat down again. Seeing, that she might not come here anymore, Sakura took this time to reminisce all the time that she was here.

A few minutes later, Sakura was still sitting at the table. Then Neji decided to take a short break and walked over to the table and found Sakura was still there.

"I see you're still here." Neji said.

Sakura was snapped out of her thoughts and looked up at Neji. "Yeah well, I have nothing to do at home anyways."

"Suit yourself." Neji reached for a cup of tea with one hand because he was holding a bow with his other hand. Sakura looked at Neji while he was drinking tea, and then a thought came to Sakura.

"Um…Neji-senpai…" she started.

"What is it?" Neji asked as he put down the cup.

"I was wondering….c-can you teach me…." Sakura hesitated to finish the sentence.

Neji raised an eyebrow. "Teach you what?" he asked.

"Teach me….that."

Neji was confused by Sakura answer. "What do you mean _that_?"

Sakura started to blush at what she was about to ask. "….that." Sakura said as she point to it. Neji looked at what Sakura was pointing to and it was a bow that he was holding.

"This?" Neji asked while holding up the object. Sakura simply just nodded in response.

"So you want to learn how to archer?" Neji asked.

Sakura nodded again, "If it's okay with you."

"…" Neji didn't respond back after a few seconds so Sakura got worry that he wouldn't agree.

"Now that my training is over, I feel kind of bored if I don't do something. And besides, I was always curious to learn how to archer." Sakura tried to make it sound as convincing as possible.

Still, Neji did not respond. Sakura was starting to hold her breath out of nervousness.

"I guess it wouldn't hurt to teach you." Neji finally spoke up. Then a waved of relief swiped through Sakura's body and she finally let go of her breath.

"Thanks, Neji-senpai!"

"Yeah, whatever." Neji began to walk toward the boundary line of the field. Sakura followed him and stopped when he stopped.

"Put this on." Neji handed the girl some protective gears to put on so that she wouldn't get hurt. Sakura took her time to put them on one by one. Then when she was finish Neji handed her a bow and an arrow. Neji told her how to hold it and how to stand while holding the equipment.

Neji stepped back to give Sakura some room to shoot the arrow. Then when she shot the arrow, well let's just say it wasn't good. She missed by a mile, according to Neji. But Sakura thought differently, she only missed by a couple of feet.

Then Sakura tried again. She straightened her arm and back just like Neji said. But then somehow she still didn't feel confident that she would hit the target. Neji was standing not so far away and he couldn't take it anymore. And so, he stepped up next to Sakura.

"Not like that." Neji then lean over and took Sakura right hand, which was holding onto the string of the bow, and with his other hand, he held onto Sakura left hand. "Like this."

Neji face was right next to Sakura as he tried to focus on the aim. Sakura then tilted her head to look at his face, and she started to blush at their closeness and at his handsome face. _"Wow, I never notice how cute Neji-senpai is." _Sakura smiled at the thought.

"Ready?" Neji asked and broke Sakura train of thoughts.

"Huh? Uh…Ready!" Sakura said. Neji was holding Sakura left hand and he pulled the string harder.

"Ok, when I say **now** let go of the string. Got it?" Neji asked.

"Got it." replied Sakura.

Sakura forgot about what she was thinking earlier and focus on the task at hand.

"Now!"

Then she released the bow and the arrow was launch. This time the arrow did not slow down and it went straight to the red target. Although the arrow didn't hit exactly in the middle of the spot, it was ON the red mark nonetheless.

"Not bad Sa-" Neji was cut off when Sakura suddenly jumped and wrapped her arms around his neck while jumping up and down.

"YAY! I did it! I did it! I did it!" and it goes on.

Sakura was so happy that she hit the mark that she didn't notice that she was holding on to Neji and she was really close to his face. Neji in respond was caught off guard and didn't make a move nor told her to let go.

After a whole 2 minutes of celebrating, Sakura finally realized what she was doing. She was hugging Neji! Sakura quickly let go of him and started to blush really hard.

"I-I'm sorry, Neji-senpai." Sakura apologized while looking away.

"…it's ok…" Neji said in a low voice.

"…"

"…"

There was an awkward silence between them. Then Neji coughed to get rid of the stupid silent.

"Uh…y-you want to…uh…try it again?" Neji didn't expect he would shudder like that. Inside he was cursing himself for sounding like an idiot.

"Uh…s-sure." Sakura shuddered just as equally as Neji.

Then Neji took a few step aside from Sakura and she turned to look at Neji with a confuse face.

"This time try it by yourself."

"O-okay…" Sakura was a little disappointed but she didn't want to let Neji know that.

Sakura then got out another arrow and put it on the bow and took aim again. She then glanced over to Neji, who was watching her every movement.

"_Ok, I have to show Neji-senpai what I'm made of. I have to make that shot. I will make that shot!" _Sakura thought. _"But then again, it's hard to concentrate when he's staring at me like that."_ Sakura then pulled on the string harder. _"Come on, Sakura. You can do this. Just keep focus. Don't think about Neji-senpai is watching you. Concentrate on the target."_

Sakura narrowed her eyes to get a better view of the target. Her aim was none other than the red mark in the middle of the board.

"_Hm…her stance is good. She also has good focus." _Neji thought as he continued to study Sakura's posture.

Sakura pulled the string even harder. _"One, two….three!"_ Sakura let go of the bow string and the arrow flew straight to the target. The arrow landed close to the last arrow before, which meant that it was inside the red mark!

"YAY! I actually did it! And this time I did it by myself! Did you see that Neji-senpai?" Sakura looked at Neji for an answer while giving him her biggest smile.

Neji just simply nodded and smiled back at her.

For next several minutes, Sakura continued to practice shooting and Neji was sitting at a nearby table, drinking tea. Then Sakura felt tired so she put down the bow and walked over to where Neji sat. Sakura also felt hungry so she took out her lunchbox and started to unwrap it.

Then the lunchbox revealed a couple of pink mochi, and Sakura started to consume the pink stuff. Neji was sitting across from Sakura and when he saw the mochi that Sakura brought, he chuckled softly beneath his breath.

Sakura shifted her head to face Neji. "What's so funny?" she asked.

"Nothing." Neji answered and he quietly continued to drink his tea.

* * *

**A/N: Congratulation!! You guys made it all the way here! This is the last of the filler chapters. **

**For those of you know who wanted some mushy scenes, I like to say one thing to you people. Be patient.**

**Aren't ya happy now? I included a little spark between Sakura and Neji in this chapter, so I hope you liked it. I couldn't stop smiling and laughing while I wrote it. hahaha XD!!**

**Next Chapter: Don't Forget March 28**

_sacredairbga7 _


	9. Don’t Forget March 28

A/N: I think it's only fair to say "I'm sorry" for the late update. But if I can get a dollar every time I say "I'm sorry for the late update" then I might be rich by now. hehe! Just a little joke to lighten up the mood!

ATTENTION READERS! I have made some changes to this fanfic. It's nothing big really. Sakura and Neji are NOT in high school, they are in Junior High School. And there are some scenes I cut off and add in. So if you come across something that you thought suppose to happen, but was not mention later on, then most likely I cut that part off.

Note: See my profile for the changes I made and for additional information.

_--_

**Summary:** **Neji x Sakura **Meet Haruno Sakura, a typical junior high school prankster. When her prank got out of hand, the school principal decides to assign Sakura a mentor. Sakura thinks it's going to be a hell but things might not be as bad as Sakura thinks. As Sakura was starting to behave herself, a new problem occur that made her more rebellious than before. AU and hopefully not too much OOC

**Genre: **Drama/Romance

A/N - Author Note

_Italic - thoughts_

**Bold – emphasis on the word**

* * *

**Troublemaker**

**Chapter 9: Don't Forget March 28**

9 days later

Sakura was walking home from school like always. When she arrived home, the door was opened and there were a couple of suitcases at the doorstep. Then she saw her mom walking toward the door while checking her purse for something. Sakura approached Kaede but her mom didn't seem to notice Sakura was there.

"Mom…?" Sakura started.

"Hmm…?" came Kaede replied.

"Where are you going?" Sakura asked while looking at the suitcases.

"Didn't I tell you? I'm going to Kyoto on a business trip."

Then Sakura glanced at the calendar that was in the living room. "But today is March 26." she said. Kaede turned to Sakura and thought about what her daughter told her for a few seconds. Then it finally hit Kaede and she realized what Sakura was talking about.

Kaede gasped, "Of course! March 28 is your birthday! I can't believe I didn't realize it sooner!"

Both Kaede and Sakura knew that whenever Kaede go on her business trips, it usually took 5-7 days for Kaede to come back. Sakura knew that well and she didn't want to get her hopes up. "It's ok; you don't have to worry about it." Sakura muttered while she sat down on the couch.

"No, no, this is important. We should do something together...just the two of us…" Kaede trailed off the last few words. "I know! How about the both of us go to the salon and get a complete make-over when I get back?"

That had caught Sakura's attention immediately and her mind started to reminisce the time that her mom and she did it together. Then Kaede said exactly what Sakura was thinking, "Just like the old days."

Sakura smiled at her mom but then frown again. "But what about your business trip?"

Kaede pondered about that for a few seconds, and then it turned into minutes. "I think I come back it in time for your birthday."

Sakura raised her hopes, "Really?"

"Yeah…just give me a sec to calculate the time." Then Kaede started to mumble to herself. After a few minutes, Kaede finally made a conclusion. "Yeah! I can return in time if I work fast enough."

"That's great! But don't push yourself too hard, mom. I'll understand if you don't return on time." Sakura tried be to as understandable as possible, but inside she wanted her mom to come back in time for her birthday.

"Don't worry, I won't push myself too hard. And besides, it's been awhile since we last bonded. It used to be a tradition with us whenever it was your birthday. We always go to the salon and then we go window shopping until you find something you like and I buy it for you."

Sakura giggled as she to recall those good memories. "Speaking of gift…." Kaede interrupted Sakura thoughts. Sakura the looked at her mom for her to continue.

"Is there something you like that I could buy for you as a birthday present?" Kaede asked.

"Well…..there is something…" Sakura started to blush. It's been awhile since she last asked her mom to buy her something.

"What is it?"

"There is this bracelet….." Sakura hesitated to finish and she lowered her head. Kaede just simply smile at her daughter, "Tell me all about it." Then Sakura began to describe the bracelet that Ino showed her before. (Chapter 7)

"Well, I guess it's decided then. I'll come back before or at March 28 and I'll buy that bracelet for you."

"OK! Thanks mom! You're the best!" Sakura hugged her mom.

"Kaede, it's time to go." a voice called out. Sakura and Kaede turned their heads and saw Fuji was at the door. The suitcases at the doorstep was gone, it seem he already put it in the car.

"Coming, Satoshi." replied Kaede. Sakura was frowning when Kaede looked at her daughter.

Then Sakura knotted her eyes. "You're going with Fuji-san?"

Kaede nodded and Sakura looked away, still frowning. Kaede lifted Sakura face with her hand, forcing her daughter to look at her. "Listen to me, Sakura. Be good while I'm gone ok?"

Sakura simply nodded and Kaede continued. "And when I get back, I promise to do all that you want me to do and I'll buy you that bracelet. How does that sound?" Kaede gave Sakura a reassure smile. Sakura smiled back and nodded again.

"Promise?" Sakura held out her pinky. Kaede looked at Sakura's pinky for half a second and then said, "Promise." And both made the promise by connecting their pinkies together.

"Kaede!" Fuji called out again.

"Coming!" Kaede took a look at her daughter before she stood up and walked toward the door. Sakura followed her mom to the door and stopped when she stopped. Kaede turned around and gave Sakura a hug.

"Remember to behave yourself while I'm gone, ok?"

"Ok." replied Sakura. Then they released their hug.

"I love you." Kaede said.

Sakura smiled. "I love you too." Then Kaede walked out of the door and toward the car. "Take care!" Sakura yelled as she waved her hand at her mom. Kaede waved back before she got in the car. Then the car drove off and Sakura was left alone at home again.

**-**

**The next morning **

It was Sunday and it was Sakura's big day. It was March 28, which meant it was her birthday! Sakura jumped out of bed and did her usual morning routine. She was in high spirit because there was no school today and on top of that her mom was coming home, and then they could spend the whole day together.

Sakura finished brushing her teeth, got dressed, and ate some breakfast. So now she was just sitting on the couch watching TV. Then suddenly the phone rang. Sakura got off the couch and answered the phone.

A few minutes later

Sakura dropped the phone and dragged herself to the couch and turned the volume of the TV on higher. She sank into the cushion of the couch and hugged one of the small pillows. Tears were threatened to overflow from Sakura's eyes, but she immediately wiped it off. She wouldn't let a small thing like that get the better of her.

But her mind wondered back to a few minutes ago, and Sakura was recalling who was on the phone earlier.

"Hello, this is Haruno house." said Sakura.

"_Hello, Sakura dear. I'm glad I caught you in time."_ answered Kaede.

"Mom? Oh hi. I'm done getting ready, so now I'm waiting for you to come home so we can spend the day together and huh…caught me in time for what? Sakura asked.

"_Here's the deal."_ Kaede started to explain.

"_Here's the deal? Uh-oh, this doesn't sound too good."_ Sakura thought.

"My flight got delay because of a terrible thunder storm, so I don't know when I will make it back."

"Oh…" that took Sakura by surprise.

"But don't worry; I'll make it up to you. We will have a mother and daughter bonding once I get back ok dear?

Sakura sighed, and gave up on the idea of spending any time with her mom today. "Ok, I guess it can't be help. I'll wait for you to come back."

"Good girl. Mama misses you."

"Miss you too. Bye." said Sakura reluctantly.

"Bye." Kaede had already hung up the phone, but Sakura was still holding on to it. Then she had an idea and turned on the TV a little louder, and switched to the whether channel. Sakura's mom was in Kyoto right now, so all she had to do was listen to the whether broadcast there.

"_Up next is _Kyoto_, the whether there today will be partly cloudy in the morning but will be sunny for the rest of the day. It's the perfect day for anybody to have some outdoor fun in the sun. The temperature will reaches to 75 at most. I repeat 75 degree at most."_ the whether man announced.

Sakura had a hunch that the whether over Kyoto was not as bad as her mom said, but listening to the whether broadcast confirmed her suspicion.

"_Does mom still thinks I'm a five years old? Jeez, what a stupid, idiotic, and obvious lie."_ Sakura thought.

-

**The next day**

It was first period of the day for Sakura. She was taking her English test that she had been studying for the past week. Sakura gave out a big yawn, she could feel her eyes were getting heavier and heavier by the second. She glanced over to Naruto to see how he was doing on the test. He looked confused as always, but at least he was able to open his eyes. Then for some reason, he seemed to be more confident than before, or maybe her tired eyes were deceiving her. Sakura had stayed up all night last night for reason beyond her. She yawned again and she tried to focus on the task at hand, which is to finish her English test. She raised her pencil as she once again re-read the questions on the paper.

Then Sakamoto-sensei called out, "Ok, you have 5 minutes left to finish what you're doing."

That caused some students to groan and some to gasp. And Sakura was among one of them who were worry as hell because she was only on question number 15 and there were about 50 questions total! Sakura didn't have time to read the rest of the questions, so she started to bubble in the remaining answers randomly. (A/N: The test is multiple-choice)

"Time's up. Put your pencil down and pass up your answer sheet." Sakamoto stated.

Sakura quickly finished marking the last blank bubble and drop her pencil on the desk and handed the answer sheet to the person in front of her. She sank into her desk and banged her forehead on her desk. Then the bell rang and everyone ran out to their next class.

It was now lunch time; Sakura and Naruto sat their usual spot and ate their lunch. Then Naruto noticed some people were running down the hallway and he recognized some of them from his English class. They must be headed toward the score board, which meant Sakamoto already posted up the grades from the test.

"Ne, ne, Sakura-chan let's go see our grades." Naruto suggested.

Sakura was finishing up her last mochi before she could answer him. "Sure."

Afterward, the two teens followed the crowd to the score board. But when they got there, the score board was crowded with students, so they decided to wait until there were less people. Then when the crowd was finally reduced to only a couple of students, Naruto went up to the board and started to search for his name first.

"Hell yeah!!" looks like he found it. Sakura was just behind him, but she didn't bother to look at the scores yet. "What cha' got?" she asked.

Naruto turned to look at Sakura and he put on the biggest grin that he had. "I got a 71!"

Sakura smiled back at him. "That's great."

"So, what did you get Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked.

"I don't know yet. I haven't check." Then Naruto immediately turned around and began to search for Sakura name at the top of the list.

Then suddenly a voice called out, "You won't find her name at the top."

The second she heard the voice, Sakura knew exactly who it was. She tilted her head slightly and she saw Neji stood right before her. He looked pissed off, somewhat annoyed, and he had a dark and angry aura all around him. All the people around him were shivering out of fright and they made sure to stay out of his path. Too bad, Sakura failed to notice the aura surrounding him, and she casually spoke up.

"Oh, hi senpai." she greeted her mentor. Neji didn't say anything and he continued to glare at the girl in front of him. When Sakura didn't received a "hi" back, she knew something was wrong and she might just have an idea of what it could be. But then she shoved that thought aside and pretended like nothing happen. "What did you just said earlier, senpai?"

Neji looked at the score board that Naruto was searching so hard to find Sakura name, and then back at Sakura. "I said you won't find your name at the top."

Then as if by cue Naruto said the same thing that Neji just repeated. "I can't find your name anywhere, Sakura-chan." then he turned around and found his friend was having a glaring contest with her mentor.

"That's because her score is at the bottom of the list." Neji said as he continued to glared daggers at Sakura. And in return she still pretended like nothing happen.

"Ehh……? That can't be!" then Naruto turned to face the score board again, but this time he search at the bottom of the list. "Found it! Let's see Sakura-chan got a…."

Neji began to narrowed his eyes as Naruto was about to tell them what Sakura score was. On the other hand, Sakura looked calm and bored. It was as if she knew what her score was going to be. She wouldn't be surprise if it was-

"25!!" Naruto shouted as he was about to lose his balance and fall down. But he prevented himself from doing so. Naruto then looked at Sakura with a worried face and he was about to ask why but Neji beat him to it.

"What's the meaning of this, Sakura?! Why did you score so low?" Neji asked with an angry tone. Sakura merely looked away to avoid Neji gaze.

"Sakura! Answer me!" Neji half shouted. He was trying his best to control his anger. Even Naruto was starting to be scare of Neji and he nudged Sakura slightly on the shoulder and begged her to answer the older teen. "Sakura-chan, please answer him."

A few seconds had pass and yet Sakura did not speak up. Neji was starting to lose his patient. And Naruto hid behind Sakura just in case Neji reached his maximum angry level. That wouldn't be a good sight to see.

Then Neji was prepared to give out a full shout, "Sa-" but he was cut off by Sakura.

"I get it already for God's sake! I scored really low this time! So what?! I'll make it up on the next test. There! Are you happy now?!" but before either Neji or Naruto could answer, Sakura spoke up again. "Good! Now if you don't mind, I'm going to my next class to get this stupid fucking day over with!" Sakura began to walk away from the boys.

"What's her problem; I'm the one who should be angry." It was as if Neji was talking to Naruto, but not directly.

"Who knows." Naruto shrugged, but on the back of his mind, _"Why is this guy so concern about Sakura-chan? I know he is her mentor, but I'm sensing something more…"_

Just as Naruto was thinking harder about Sakura and Neji relationship, the school bell rang, which meant that lunch was over.

"Oh crap, I still haven't finished my lunch yet." Naruto remarked and dashed away. Unfortunately he was lured away by food before he could finish his thought. (A/N: sweat drop)

-

**Later that day**

School was over, but for some student like Sakura had to stay behind because she had to do class chores. Sakura muttered some curses words as she clean the chalkboard. When she was to finish cleaning the board, she has to make sure all the chairs were slid under the desk, that there are no trash on the floor, and she had to clean one of the window because one of the boy in her class felt like throwing pudding on the window. He got detention for it, but she was the one stuck cleaning it up. Just the thought of it made her want to kill him right away.

Sakura was done with the chalkboard, pushed all the chairs under the desk, made sure there was no trash on the floor, and her final task was…gulped…cleaning the window. She pulled up a chair from one of the desk and she was about to stood up on it when suddenly the door slid open. Sakura turned her head to see who it was at the door. It was none other than Neji himself. This time he didn't look pissed off or angry at all. His face was back to its normal facial expression, which was no expression at all.

"Can l help you, Neji-senpai?" Sakura asked.

Neji looked around the room and then at Sakura before he replied, "I heard you have class chores, so I thought I come to see if you need some help."

Sakura raised an eyebrow. "Why…?"

"Oh, nothing, I just thought you might want some help so you can go home earlier. But I guess I was wrong." then he motion to stepped out of the door.

"Wait!" Sakura called out. Nej halted and slowly turned around. "Well…, do you need help or not?" he asked.

Sakura knew it wasn't that simple. Neji would not just come in and offer to help her out. Something was up and she would find out what it was. But in the mean time, she could use some help.

"Yeah, I can use some help. Thanks for your offer, Neji-senpai." Sakura said cheerfully.

"Aa," was his replied. Then he walked over to Sakura and grabbed another chair and a cloth, and started to clean the window with Sakura.

A few minutes later, both had finally finished cleaning the window and put the chairs where it belonged. "Thanks for the help, Neji-senpai. I couldn't finish this early without your help." Sakura said.

"You're welcome." Neji was heading toward the door again, but then he just remembered the reason why he looked for Sakura in the first place. Then an idea hit him and he turned around and called out to Sakura.

"Yes?" Sakura turned toward her mentor and gave him her full attention.

"A-Are…" Neji couldn't believe he was shuddering again, but he gathered up all his courage and spoke up. "Are you going to practice archery today?"

Sakura blinked twice before she answered, "Uh…sure…why not…I'll be there!" she said the last three words more loudly than the rest. Neji gave her nod and waved his hand to say good-bye. "I'll see you there then. Bye." then Neji left as he closed the door of the classroom, leaving only Sakura in the room.

She had thought Neji was still mad at her about what happen during lunch, but since he went out of his way to asked her to come to the dojo, she couldn't refused to come. Sakura would let everything happened today as a bad day and continued with her life. Then her mind went back to a few minutes ago and realized she would see Neji again today, and for some reason Sakura smiled at the thought of it.

**-**

**Later that same day**

When Sakura was finish with her class chores, she stopped by her house to get her training that she brought home to wash. It has been a few days since the last time Sakura went to Neji's dojo. "I wonder why he asked me to come today." Sakura thought. She was just a few more blocks away from the dojo. "Guess I'll find out soon." Sakura smiled at the thought.

When Sakura reached Neji's dojo, she greeted him, grabbed a bow and some arrows, and started shooting. For the first few shots, Sakura did well, but afterward her aim got worse and worse. Neji, who was standing right next to her, sweat dropped at how bad she was doing. Finally, when Neji couldn't take it anymore, he was about to tell Sakura to take a break or something, but then Sakura put down her bow and walked to the table on her own.

After awhile, Neji decided to sit down as well. Sakura was sitting and staring off into space. Neji, who was drinking tea again, looked at her with a worry face.

"Sakura, what's wrong?" Neji asked.

Sakura stayed silent. Neji looked over at the mochi.

"You didn't even eat your favorite dessert." he added.

That took Sakura by surprise. "H-How did you know mochi was my favorite dessert?" she asked.

Neji just simply gave out a soft chuckle and then it turned into a smirk. "Anyone could tell it's your favorite dessert. You eat it everyday."

"Oh…" Sakura started blushing. She didn't think anyone noticed she liked strawberry mochi.

"You can eat it if you want. I'm not a big fan of sweets." Neji sipped his tea.

"Uh…oh, thank you senpai." Sakura said in a low voice. _"Did he bring the mochi out just for me to eat it?"_ Sakura thought as she took a bite of the strawberry mochi.

Even though mochi was Sakura favorite things to eat, she couldn't help be feel uncomfortable while eating it. The atmosphere around Neji and her was very awkward. After eating a couple of mocha, Sakura was starting to feel thirsty. She looked ahead and noticed the tea pot next to Neji, as he was staring off to nowhere, and there was two tea cups as well. One of them was use by Neji and the other is still unused. But Sakura was too scared to reach out to grab the extra tea cup, so she decided to go find another one.

Just as Sakura was about to stand up, Neji called out. "Use this." Neji handed Sakura the extra tea cup. Sakura looked surprise for a second and unconsciously held the tea cup in her hand. "It's for you to use from now on." Neji finished his sentence.

"Uh…oh, yes thank you senpai." replied Sakura.

It was as if Neji was reading Sakura mind, he handed her a cup when she needed it and said she could use it.

"_So wait a minute now…… Does that mean I get my own cup?"_ Sakura thought as she poured in some tea for her cup. Then, she took a closer look at the tea cup and noticed that there were some cherry blossom petal patterns on the cup. _"Hehe, a cherry blossom tea cup matches with my name. Hehe." _Sakura smiled at the coincidence, or was it really?

(A/N: You must know what happen; if not then do I need to spell it out for you?)

-

**The next day**

The bell for the last class of the day had rang and everyone strolled out of their classes. Naruto has just come out from his Chemistry class and was mumbling to himself while crossing his arms against his chest, almost in a thinking position.

"Ok, so if oxidation means that it losses electrons and reduction means gaining electrons, but then why does reduction means gaining? Doesn't reduction mean to lose? So maybe then reduction means losing electrons after all? I- Ugh! I don't get it!" Naruto was about to bang his head onto a locker when a feminine voice called out to him.

"Hey, Naru…to…" the voice trailed off when she saw that he has already banged his head on a locker. Naruto looked up from where he shoved his head on and gave a small smile.

"Hey, Ino." he greeted.

"Um…do I want to know why you smash your head onto the locker?" Ino asked with a half concerned and half teasing voice. Naruto straightened himself and pretended nothing happened and laughed it off.

"Heh, it's nothing. By the way have you seen Sakura-chan?" Naruto tried to change the subject.

"Yeah, I saw her. But after our class was over, I haven't seen her since then. Why?" Ino answered.

"Oh, I just wanted to know since I haven't seen her since lunch. Is it just me or is Sakura-chan been acting weird lately?" Naruto questioned himself.

"Hm…you might be right. She is more distant from me than usual. At least when we pass each other in the hallway, she would wave hi, but now she does nothing." Ino dejected.

"Yeah, you got a point. She rarely speaks to me now. We mostly talk about school work and that's it. I wonder what could have happen to her." Naruto said.

"Do you think we did something to her that made her like that?" Ino asked.

"I don't know…maybe we did…" answered Naruto. Suddenly, the speaker came on and the principal voice could be heard.

"_Attention, tennis player. Tryouts will be held on April 2__nd __at 4 o'clock. Tardiness will not be permitted. If you are going to be late, then don't brother to show up at all. I repeat tennis tryout will be on April 2__nd__ at 4 o'clock. That is all, have a good afternoon."_ Then the speaker was off.

"_Hmm…April 2__nd__… April 2__nd__…April 2__nd__… April 2__nd__…wait a minute! Isn't today March 30__th__?"_ Ino asked herself and glanced over to Naruto, who was staring at the locker that he just slammed his head to.

"Hey, Naruto. Isn't today March 30th?" she asked him. Naruto thought about it for a second and answered, "Yeah, I think so." He raised an eyebrow.

"So that means that March 28 have passed, right?"

"Yeah…" he answered again. _"What is she getting at?"_ he thought.

Ino was about to whack him on the head for his stupidity. "Na-ru-to, don't you realize what's on March 28?"

"Um…it is something important?"

"Only to you and me."

"Ok, what is it?"

"Ugh! Do I have to spell it out for you?"

"…"

"Ugh! How can you forget your friend's birthday, you idiot? Especially, when we used to celebrate her birthday."

Then suddenly a light bulb turned on inside Naruto head and he realized what Ino was trying to say.

"Sakura's birthday is on March 28 and today is March 30, which means her birthday has passed!" They both said at the same time.

"Ah! I can't believe I forgot her birthday and I didn't buy her a present yet either!" Naruto mentally slapped himself over and over for forgetting Sakura's birthday.

"Yeah… didn't think I would forget it either…" Ino muttered. There was a silence followed after their outburst. Then all of a suddenly Naruto spoke up again. "Oh I know! I'll go buy her a present today. Better late than never, right Ino?" he asked.

"Yeah."

"But…"

"But what…?" Ino cocked an eyebrow.

"I don't have enough money to buy her that bracelet she likes so much."

"Hmm…yeah, that's a tough decision…" Ino putted her hand on her chin and made a thinking pose.

"Oh I know! I can borrow Iruka-sensei for some money, I'm sure he won't mind."

"That's great! So where is he now?"

"Hmm…I believe he teaches the senior in our school, so he should be upstairs."

"Ok then, what are we waiting for? Let's go!" Ino exclaimed.

Iruka was finishing up the last couple of test paper and he would be on his way home. Then when suddenly he heard the door slide open and revealed a white-eyed teen with long brunette hair that was tied to a pony tail holding a broom and a broom duster, and began to sweep the floor. Upon seeing one of his students, Iruka pondered why Hyuuga Nji was doing here.

"Neji-kun, what are you doing here?" Iruka asked.

"I have classroom chores today." answered Neji. Well, that was straightforward answer as one could get.

"_Oh yeah…I forgot about that."_ was all Iruka could think of. Then suddenly, Iruka could hear his name being called from the hallway. Running footsteps could be heard also. The voice and the footsteps were drawing nearer and nearer to Iruka classroom. Neji ignored the sounds and continued with his duty.

"Iruka-sensei!" yelled Naruto while slamming the door wide open.

"Na-ru-to, no running in the hallway. And please don't yell neither." Iruka said tiredly. Neji could tell by Iruka reaction that this was not the first time it happened.

"But this is a emergency, sensei!" Naruto stated.

"What's the emergency, Naruto?"

"I need to borrow 30,000 yen." Naruto said in a serious tone while panting.

Iruka sweat dropped, "Forget it." he answered straight away. _"And I thought it was something serious, but he was just asking for money."_ Iruka sighed.

Then suddenly, another loud voice called out in anger. "Naruto!" It was Ino and she was out of breath from the running. "You didn't have to run so fast." Still panting

"Well, blame yourself for being so slow, Ino." answered Naruto

"What did you say!?"

"Okay, okay, that's enough." Iruka tried to stop a fight from happening. He looked up and saw Ino face looked similar but couldn't remember her name. "The girl at the door, what is your name and classroom number?"

Ino has calm down and politely bow to Iruka. "Nice to see you again, Iruka-sensei. My name is Yamanaka Ino. Classroom 2-B. Perhaps you still remember me, I'm a friend of Haruno Sakura, who is a friend of that blond idoit over there." Naruto shouted "Hey!" in anger after hearing that comment.

"_Yamanaka Ino. No wonder she looks similar. She and Haruno Sakura, along with Naruto used to hang out together. Haruno Sakura. Sakura. Sa…ku…ra…. If I remember correctly, Sakura is currently being tutor by that Hyuuga Neji over there."_ Iruka sneaked a peek at Neji who was still sweeping the floor.

"Oh, I remember. You are Yamanaka-san. It's been a while. How have you been?" asked Iruka.

"I'm doing fine. Thank you for asking." Ino said.

"Glad to hear it. So what brings you here to the third floor, Yamanaka-san."

"Actully, I'm here with Naruto to ask you a favor."

"Favor? What favor?"

"Hey, you didn't ask him yet?" Ino nudged Naruto shoulder.

"I did! But he said no!"

Ino and Naruto looked at Iruka and Iruka could only tilted his head with a question mark. "Iruka-sensei, please lend us 30,000 yen." Ino pleaded.

"_Oh, so that's the favor they were talking about."_ thought Iruka. "May I ask what the money for?"

Naruto and Ino looked at each other and communicated using eye contact. Then Ino spoke up, "The money is for buying a present for a friend."

"And who is this friend of yours?"

"It's for Sakura-chan, sir!" Naruto proudly announced.

"Sakura? Haruno Sakura?" asked Iruka.

"Yes, sir!" said Naruto.

"What's the occasion? It's a little early for Christmas present don't you think so?" asked Iruka.

"No, sensei. It's for her birthday. Sakura birthday was on March 28, but we forgot to wish her a happy birthday. So we thought of making up for her by giving her a special present." said Ino.

"I see. I'll be glad to help. But I don't have that much money on me right now."

"That's okay. We can go to the bank to withdraw some money." said Naruto.

"But we have to hurry, the store is closing early today." Ino said while looking at her wristwatch.

"Ok, give me a minute. I have to pack my paper work first." Iruka scambled to put in the papers that he have to grade. "Oh, and before I forget. Neji-kun…!" Iruka looked where Hyuuga Neji suppose to be, but there was no sign of the boy there. "He left? When did he leave?"

"What!? Neji was here? How come I didn't see him?" Naruto asked no one in particular.

"_Neji? Who's that?"_ Ino thought.

"There's no time to waste. Come on. Let's go!" said Iruka. Naruto, Ino and Iruka left the classroom in a hurry.

-

Somewhere in town, at the store called "Gift Ideas"

When the door opened which triggered the bell on top of the door, and got the attention of someone in Gift Ideas.

"How can I help you young man?" asked a middle aged man.

A teen in his uniform walked in with long brunette hair and white, clear eyes and said, "Mister, I would like to buy that bracelet." The teen pointed to the bracelet with cherry blossom petals. (A/N: Sorry, I know that's not a good description.)

"Oh! Good choice, young man. That's the last one that we have." The middle aged man pick up the bracelet and wrapped it up nicely.

The brunnette teen stepped forward to pay for the bracelet, then the old man asked, "Did you know that this bracelet comes in a set with a necklace and earrings?"

"No." the teen answered softly.

"It's too bad that the necklace and earrings already sold out. But if you like I could reorder the complete set for you."

"Why would I want the whole set?" the teen cocked a eyebrow.

"You're buying for your girlfriend right?"

"……" the brunnette boy kept silent.

-

Back to Naruto, Ino, and Iruka-sensei

"Damn it! That ATM machine purposely trying to slow us down! It kept saying Error! Shit!" yelled Naruto in Iruka car.

"Naruto, watch your language." Iruka warned.

"I don't think we'll make it on time." said the worried Ino.

A few minutes later a car stopped near a store Gift Ideas, and three people rushed inside. The blond boy was the first to enter, then Iruka and Ino. "Hey, old man we like to buy the bracelet with sakura petals on it."

"Naruto, couldn't ask more nicely?" questioned Ino.

"Sakura petals?" asked the middle aged man.

"He meant a bracelet with cherry blossom petals in the middle of it."

The old man thought for a while and a stroke of memory came back to him. "Oh! You mean this bracelet?" he hold up a picture for the customers to see.

"Yes! That's the one." answered Ino.

"So sorry, I sold the last piece to another customer already."

"What!?" said Ino, Iruka, and Naruto in unison.

"I guess we were too late." said Iruka.

"Oh man…" Naruto whined.

"_Sold out? Who could have…?"_ thought Ino.

* * *

**A/N: **I finally finish chapter 9. I'm so sorry for the super, duper late update. I hope you enjoy this chapter. See you again in chapter 10!

**Next Chapter: **………not gonna tell you. It's going to ruin the surprise.

_sacredairbga7_


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